Status reporting of a structured collection procedure

ABSTRACT

Embodiments related to a system and method managing the implementation, execution, data collection, data analysis and status reporting of a structured collection procedure running on a portable, hand-held collection device are disclosed. The collection device performing the structured collection procedure has program instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to initiate automatically a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met at some unknown time, store in memory patient data collected in accordance to the schedule of events, end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met at some unknown time. Status reporting can be provided throughout the execution of the collection procedure.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/643,415 filed Dec. 21, 2009, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/140,270 filed Dec. 23, 2008, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to devices collecting physiological information, and particularly to a system and method managing the implementation, execution, data collection, and data analysis of a structured collection procedure running on a portable, hand-held collection device as well as status reporting of the structured collection procedure.

BACKGROUND

A disease which is long lasting or which reoccurs often is defined typically as a chronic disease. Known chronic diseases include, among others, depression, compulsive obsession disorder, alcoholism, asthma, autoimmune diseases (e.g. ulcerative colitis, lupus erythematosus), osteoporosis, cancer, and diabetes mellitus. Such chronic diseases require chronic care management for effective long-term treatment. After an initial diagnosis, one of the functions of chronic care management is then to optimize a patient's therapy of the chronic disease.

In the example of diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from inadequate insulin secretion, insulin action, or both, it is known that diabetes manifests itself differently in each person because of each person's unique physiology that interacts with variable health and lifestyle factors such as diet, weight, stress, illness, sleep, exercise, and medication intake. Biomarkers are patient biologically derived indicators of biological or pathogenic processes, pharmacologic responses, events or conditions (e.g., aging, disease or illness risk, presence or progression, etc.). For example, a biomarker can be an objective measurement of a variable related to a disease, which may serve as an indicator or predictor of that disease. In the case of diabetes mellitus, such biomarkers include measured values for glucose, lipids, triglycerides, and the like. A biomarker can also be a set of parameters from which to infer the presence or risk of a disease, rather than a measured value of the disease itself. When properly collected and evaluated, biomarkers can provide useful information related to a medical question about the patient, as well as be used as part of a medical assessment, as a medical control, and/or for medical optimization.

For diabetes, clinicians generally treat diabetic patients according to published therapeutic guidelines such as, for example, Joslin Diabetes Center & Joslin Clinic, Clinical Guideline for Pharmacological Management of Type 2 Diabetes (2007) and Joslin Diabetes Center & Joslin Clinic, Clinical Guideline for Adults with Diabetes (2008). The guidelines may specify a desired biomarker value, e.g., a fasting blood glucose value of less than 100 mg/dl, or the clinician can specify a desired biomarker value based on the clinician's training and experience in treating patients with diabetes. However, such guidelines do not specify biomarker collection procedures for parameter adjustments to support specific therapies used in optimizing a diabetic patient's therapy. Subsequently, diabetic patients often must measure their glucose levels with little structure for collection and with little regard to lifestyle factors. Such unstructured collections of glucose levels can result in some biomarker measurements lacking interpretative context, thereby reducing the value of such measurements to clinicians and other such health care providers helping patients manage their disease.

A patient with a chronic disease may be asked by different clinicians at various times to perform a number of collections in an effort to diagnose a chronic disease or to optimize therapy. However, these requests to perform such collections according to a schedule may overlap, be repeats, run counter to each other and/or provide a burden on the patient such that the patient may avoid any further attempts to diagnose their chronic disease or to optimize therapy.

In addition, if a requesting clinician does not evaluate the patient properly to see if the schedule of requested collections is possible and/or whether parameters for the collections are suitable and/or acceptable for the patient, having useful results from such collections may be unlikely. Still further, if there has not been enough suitable data collected to complete the requested collections, such that the data collected is helpful towards addressing the medical question and/or the interests of the clinician, such a request may waste the time and effort of the clinician and the patient as well as the consumables used to perform the collections. Again, such failure may discourage the patient from seeking further therapy advice.

Moreover, prior art collection devices used in facilitating a schedule of collections provide limited guidance, if any at all, and simple reminders of a collection event. Such prior art device typically need to be programmed manually by the either clinician or the patient, in which to govern the collection schedule. Such limited guidance and functionality provided by prior art collection devices can also further discourage the patient from seeking any future optimization of their therapy as performing another collection procedure in this manner may be viewed as being laborious by the patient, thereby leaving such optimization to simply guessing.

SUMMARY

It is against the above background that embodiments of the present invention present a system and method managing the implementation, execution, data collection, and data analysis of a prospective structured collection procedure running on a portable, hand-held collection device as well as status reporting of the structured collection procedure. Embodiments of the present invention can be implemented on various collection devices, such as a blood glucose measuring device (meter) that has the capability to accept and run thereon one or more collection procedures and associated meter-executable scripts according to the present invention. These collection procedures in one embodiment can be generated on a computer or any device capable of generating a collection procedure. Status reporting of the structured collection procedure running on a device can be in printed and/or electronic format, and be provided to both patients and clinicians for different purposes, such as for the patient, e.g., troubleshooting, motivation, determining health status, and the likes, and for the clinician, e.g., to learn about patients needs, to identify depressive patients, to determine health status, and the likes.

In one embodiment, a collection device which performs a structured collection procedure is disclosed. The device comprises: a display, memory, a processor connected to the memory and the display, and program instructions. The program instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to: initiate a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met, collect patient data for the structured collection procedure when entered in response to a request in accordance with an event provided in the schedule of events after initiation, store automatically in the memory the collected patient data, assess automatically whether the collected patient data in response to the request meets one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, associate automatically with the stored collected patient data a unique identifier in the memory if satisfying the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, provide automatically a status report when the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria are not met during the structured collection procedure, and end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met.

In another embodiment, a collection device which performs a structured collection procedure is disclosed. The device comprises: a display; memory; a processor connected to the memory and the display; and program instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to: initiate a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met, collect patient data for the structured collection procedure when entered in response to a request in accordance with an event provided in the schedule of events after initiation, store automatically in the memory the collected patient data, assess automatically whether the collected patient data in response to the request meets one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, associate automatically with the stored collected patient data a unique identifier in the memory if satisfying the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met, and provide automatically a status report when the one or more exit criteria is met.

In still another embodiment, a method of managing a structured collection procedure is disclosed and comprises providing a collection device with the structured collection procedure and a program instructions, and executing the program instruction on the collection device. The program instructions cause a processor of the collection device to: initiate a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met, collect patient data for the structured collection procedure when entered in response to a request in accordance with an event provided in the schedule of events after initiation, store automatically in the memory the collected patient data, assess automatically whether the collected patient data in response to the request meets one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, associate automatically with the stored collected patient data a unique identifier in the memory if satisfying the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, provide automatically a status report when the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria are not met during the structured collection procedure, and end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met.

These and other advantages and features of various embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, will be made more apparent from the description, drawings and claims that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention can be best understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a chronic care management system for a diabetes patient and a clinician along with others having an interest in the chronic care management of the patient according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 2A are diagrams showing embodiments of a system suitable for implementing a structured testing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a collection device embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a depiction in tabular format of a data record embodiment created from using a structured testing method on the collection device of FIG. 3 according to the present invention.

FIG. 5A depicts a method of creating a structured collection procedure for a medical use case and/or question according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 5B and 5C show parameters defining a structured collection procedure and factors which can be considered to optimize a patient's therapy using the structured collection procedure, respectively, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, and 6E show various structured collection procedures embodiments defined according to the present invention.

FIG. 7A depicts a structured testing method for diagnostic or therapy support of a patient with a chronic disease according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7B conceptually illustrates one example of a pre-defined structured collection procedure, and a method for customizing the pre-defined structured collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8A shows a method for performing a structured collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 8B and 8C show a method of implementing a structured collection procedure via a graphical user interface provided on a collection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a method for performing a structured collection procedure to obtain contextualized biomarker data from a patient according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10A depicts non-contextualized and contextualized data.

FIG. 10B depicts a typical collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 depicts a diagram of accepted contextualized data intermingled with non-acceptable contextualized data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 depicts elements of software according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 13 and 14 depict a collection procedure execution method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows a method of providing diabetes diagnostics and therapy support according to a use case embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 16, 17, and 18 depict different screen shots of a graphical user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 19A-19G depict different screen shots of a graphical user interface according to various embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 shows a method for performing a structured collection procedure according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 conceptually illustrates another example of a pre-defined structured collection procedure, and a method for customizing the pre-defined structured collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will be described below relative to various illustrative embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be implemented in a number of different applications and embodiments and is not specifically limited in its application to the particular embodiments depicted herein. In particular, the present invention will be discussed below in connection with diabetes management via sampling blood, although those of ordinary skill will recognize that the present invention could be modified to be used with other types of fluids or analytes besides glucose, and/or useful in managing other chronic diseases besides diabetes.

As used herein with the various illustrated embodiments described below, the following terms include, but are not limited to, the following meanings.

The term “biomarker” can mean a physiological variable measured to provide data relevant to a patient such as for example, a blood glucose value, an interstitial glucose value, an HbAlc value, a heart rate measurement, a blood pressure measurement, lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, and the like.

The term “contextualizing” can mean documenting and interrelating conditions that exist or will occur surrounding a collection of a specific biomarker measurement. Preferably, data about documenting and interrelating conditions that exist or will occur surrounding a collection of a specific biomarker are stored together with the collected biomarker data and are linked to it. In particular, a further assessment of the collected biomarker data takes into account the data about documenting and interrelating conditions so that not only the data as such are evaluated but also the link between data to which it is contextualized. The data about documenting and interrelating conditions can include for example information about the time, food and/or exercises which occurs surrounding a collection of a specific biomarker measurement and/or simultaneously thereto. For example, the context of a structured collection procedure according in an embodiment to the present invention can be documented by utilizing entry criterion for verifying a fasting state with the diabetic person before accepting a biomarker value during a Basal titration optimization (focused) testing procedure.

The term “contextualized biomarker data” can mean the information on the interrelated conditions in which a specific biomarker measurement was collected combined with the measured value for the specific biomarker. In particular, the biomarker data are stored together with the information on the interrelated conditions under which a specific biomarker measurement was collected and are linked thereto.

The term “criteria” can mean one or more criterions, and can be at least one or more of a guideline(s), rule(s), characteristic(s), and dimension(s) used to judge whether one or more conditions are satisfied or met to begin, accept, and/or end one or more procedural steps, actions, and/or values.

The term “adherence” can mean that a person following a structured collection procedure performs requested procedural steps appropriately. For example, the biomarker data should be measured under prescribed conditions of the structured collection procedure. If then the prescribed conditions are given for a biomarker measurement the adherence is defined as appropriate. For examples, the prescribed conditions are time related conditions and/or exemplarily can include eating of meals, taking a fasting sample, eating a type of meal with a requested window of time, taking a fasting sample at a requested time, sleeping a minimum amount of time, and the like. The adherence can be defined as appropriate or not appropriate for a structured collection procedure, a group of sample instances, or a single data point of a contextualized (biomarker) data. Preferably, the adherence can be defined as appropriate or not appropriate by a range of a prescribed condition(s) or by a selectively determined prescribed condition(s). Moreover the adherence can be calculated as a rate of adherence describing in which extent the adherence is given for a structured collection procedure or a single data point in particular of a contextualized biomarker data.

The term “adherence event” can mean when a person executing a structured collection procedure fails to perform a procedural step. For example, if a person did not collect data when requested by the collection device, the adherence is determined as not appropriate resulting in an adherence event. In another example, adherence criteria could be a first criterion for the patient to fast 6 hours and a second criterion for collecting a fasting bG value at a requested time. In this example, if the patient provides the bG sampling at the requested time but fasted only 3 hours before providing the bG sample, then although the second adherence criterion is met, the first adherence criterion is not, and hence an adherence event for the first criterion would occur.

The term “violation event” is a form of an adherence event in which the person executing the structured collection (testing) procedure (protocol) does not administer a therapeutic at a recommended time, does not administer a recommended amount, or both.

The term “adherence criterion” can include adherence and can mean a basis for comparison (e.g., assessment) of a value/information related to a measured value and/or a calculated value with a defined value/information, or defined range of the values, wherein based on the comparison, data can be accepted with approval and positive reception. Adherence criterion can be applied to contextualized biomarker data so that a biomarker data can be accepted depending on a comparison of the contextualized data regarding the documentation and related conditions that exist, or occur, during the collection of the specific biomarker. Adherence criterion can be akin to a sanity check for a given piece of information, or group of information. Preferably, the adherence criterion can be applied to a group(s) of data, or information, and can be rejected if the adherence criterion is not fulfilled. In particular, such rejected data are then not used for further calculations that provide a therapy recommendation. Mainly, the rejected data can only be used to assess the adherence and/or to automatically trigger at least one further action. For example, such a triggered action can prompt the user to follow a structured collection procedure, or a single requested action, so that the adherence criterion can be fulfilled. In addition, an overall adherence criterion can be derived from averaging each adherence criterion of a structured collection procedure or a specific sub-set of adherence criteria of the structured collection procedure to produce an average value which can then be used to determine an overall adherence (e.g., adhered, not adhered) or a level of overall adherence (e.g., a percentage, a degree, etc.) of the person performing the structured collection procedure to the structured collection procedure.

The adherence criterion can be also applied to a single data point/information so that, for instance, a biomarker datum can be accepted depending on a comparison of the contextualized data regarding the documentation and related conditions that exist, or occur, during the collection of the specific biomarker. If the adherence criterion is applied only to a single data point, the adherence criterion can be construed as an “acceptance criterion”.

The term “acceptance criterion,” therefore, can include an adherence criterion applied to a single data point but can also include further criteria which can be applied to a single data point. A single data point/information can be then accepted depending on contextualized data and, in addition, depending on conditions and/or results of a measurement of that specific biomarker. For example, if a measurement error is detected, the biomarker reading can be rejected because the acceptance criterion cannot be fulfilled, e.g., due to an under-dose detection, or other measurement errors, which can occur and can be detected by the system. Moreover, other criteria which define a specific range in which a measured value can be located can be defined as an acceptance criterion of a single data point/information. The acceptance criterion can be applied to contextualized biomarker data so that a single data point/information can be accepted depending on contextualized data regarding the documentation and related conditions that exist, or occur, during the collection of the specific biomarker and a comparison (e.g., assessment) of these data with a defined value/information or defined range(s) of the value for contextualized data.

Moreover, the acceptance criterion can include additional criteria related to measurement errors and/or defined ranges of measured values as described above. As used herein, a biomarker, or event value, can be “acceptable” if the user follows the appropriate and recommended steps (i.e., adherence), and, in a preferred embodiment, the resulting data are within a predicted range. For example, before a sample is taken, the acceptance criteria can establish whether the steps leading up to taking of the sample were accomplished. For example, the processor in response to a request displays the question, “Have you been fasting for the last 8 hours?,” wherein a “Yes” response received by the processor via the user interface meets the acceptance criterion for this step. In another example, after the sample is taken, the processor can assess the received data for reasonableness using other acceptance criterion(s). For example, based on prior data, a fasting bG sample should be between 120-180 mg/dl, but the received value was of 340 mg/dl, and thus fails such acceptance criteria since it is outside the predefined range for an acceptable value. In such an example, the processor could prompt for an additional sample. If the re-sampling fails too (i.e., not between 120-180 mg/dl), the assessment provided by the processor can be that the patient has not fasted, and, thus, the processor, as instructed by the acceptance criterion upon a failing of the re-sampling, can automatically extend the events in the schedule of events accordingly. In this specific example, the acceptance criterion can be based on an adherence criterion for a single data point (to be fasted) as a first acceptance criterion in combination with a predefined range of the blood glucose value which can be expected under that condition. Only if both criteria are fulfilled, the acceptance criterion overall can be met.

Furthermore, the acceptance criterion for a single data point/information can be derived from criteria which can be generated based on other data points/information. For example, if the adherence criterion of the whole collection procedure during which a single data point is measured or the adherence criteria of neighboring values is under a predefined threshold, the single data point cannot be accepted. In other words, the acceptance criterion of a single data point can include not only the adherence criterion for the measurement of the specific biomarker reading but also the adherence criterion of further biomarker readings or of the whole collection procedure. In addition, further criteria based on neighboring or related values of the specific single data point/information can be determined. For example, if a pattern recognition is applied to biomarker readings with similar contextualized data as related to the single data point/information, the single data point/information cannot then be acceptance if a reduced reliability is presumed based on the pattern recognition. For example, if a fasting blood glucose reading is detected as too high for the specific person under the conditions of the contextualized data in comparison to biomarker readings under similar conditions, it can be assumed that data were wrongly recorded even if, for example, an measurement error and/or an adherence event could not detected by the system itself. Consequently, the acceptance criterion can be defined by predetermined criteria, for example, by predetermined values but can be also defined dynamically based on data which can be generated during a collection procedure whereby specific criteria in particular values can be derived therefrom. The acceptance criterion, therefore, can be used to prove the reliability of a single data point/information so that only those values, which are significant and/or have a high reliability, can be utilized for further calculation. As a consequence, the acceptance criterion can ensure that a calculation of an insulin adjustment parameter can be based only on these values which fulfill predefined conditions that are essential for a correct insulin bolus calculation and that are accepted as values with a high reliability.

The term “data event request” can mean an inquiry for a collection of data at a single point in space-time defined by a special set of circumstances, for example, defined by time-related or not time-related events.

The term “medical use case or question” can mean at least one or more of a procedure, situation, condition, and/or question providing an uncertainty about the factuality, or existence of some medical facts, combined with a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena. A medical use case or question can be pre-loaded in the system so that the diabetic person can select between different medical use cases or questions. Alternatively, the medical use case or question can be defined by the diabetic person themselves.

The terms “software” and “program” may be used interchangeably herein.

FIG. 1 shows a chronic care management system 10 for a diabetes patient(s) 12 and a clinician(s) 14 along with others 16 having an interest in the chronic care management of the patient 12. Patient 12, having dysglycemia, may include persons with a metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. The others 16 with an interest in the patient's care may include family members, friends, support groups, and religious organizations all of which can influence the patient's conformance with therapy. The patient 12 may have access to a patient computer 18, such as a home computer, which can connect to a public network 50 (wired or wireless), such as the internet, cellular network, etc., and couple to a dongle, docking station, or device reader 22 for communicating with an external portable device, such as a portable collection device 24. An example of a device reader is shown in the manual “Accu-Chek® Smart Pix Device Reader User's Manual” (2008) available from Roche Diagnostics.

The collection device 24 can be essentially any portable electronic device that can function as an acquisition mechanism for determining and storing digitally a biomarker value(s) according to a structured collection procedure, and which can function to run the structured collection procedure and the method of the present invention. Greater details regarding various illustrated embodiments of the structured collection procedure are provided hereafter in later sections. In a preferred embodiment, the collection device 24 can be a self-monitoring blood glucose meter 26 or a continuous glucose monitor 28. An example of a blood glucose meter is the Accu-Chek® Active meter, and the Accu-Chek® Aviva meter described in the booklet “Accu-Chek® Aviva Blood Glucose Meter Owner's Booklet (2007), portions of which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,368 B1 entitled “Meter and method of using the meter for determining the concentration of a component of a fluid” assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference. An example of a continuous glucose monitor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,133 “Method and device for continuous monitoring of the concentration of an analyte” (Jun. 17, 2008) assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

In addition to the collection device 24, the patient 12 can use a variety of products to manage his or her diabetes including: test strips 30 carried in a vial 32 for use in the collection device 24; software 34 which can operate on the patient computer 18, the collection device 24, a handheld computing device 36, such as a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, and/or a mobile phone; and paper tools 38. Software 34 can be pre-loaded or provided either via a computer readable medium 40 or over the public network 50 and loaded for operation on the patient computer 18, the collection device 24, the clinician computer/office workstation 25, and the handheld computing device 36, if desired. In still other embodiments, the software 34 can also be integrated into the device reader 22 that is coupled to the computer (e.g., computers 18 or 25) for operation thereon, or accessed remotely through the public network 50, such as from a server 52.

The patient 12 can also use for certain diabetes therapies additional therapy devices 42 and other devices 44. Additionally, therapy devices 42 can include devices such as an ambulatory infusion pump 46, an insulin pen 48, and a lancing device 51. An example of an ambulatory insulin pump 46 include but not limited thereto the Accu-Chek® Spirit pump described in the manual “Accu-Chek® Spirit Insulin Pump System Pump User Guide” (2007) available from Disetronic Medical Systems AG. The other devices 44 can be medical devices that provide patient data such as blood pressure, fitness devices that provide patient data such as exercise information, and elder care device that provide notification to care givers. The other devices 44 can be configured to communicate with each other according to standards planned by Continua® Health Alliance.

The clinicians 14 for diabetes are diverse and can include e.g., nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, endocrinologists, and other such health care providers. The clinician 14 typically has access to a clinician computer 25, such as a clinician office computer, which can also be provided with the software 34. A healthcare record system 27, such as Microsoft® HealthVault™ and Google™ Health, may also be used by the patient 12 and the clinician 14 on computers 18, 25 to exchange information via the public network 50 or via other network means (LANs, WANs, VPNs, etc.), and to store information such as collection data from the collection device 24 to an electronic medical record of the patient e.g., EMR 53 (FIG. 2A) which can be provided to and from computer 18, 25 and/or server 52.

Most patients 12 and clinicians 14 can interact over the public network 50 with each other and with others having computers/servers 52. Such others can include the patient's employer 54, a third party payer 56, such as an insurance company who pays some or all of the patient's healthcare expenses, a pharmacy 58 that dispenses certain diabetic consumable items, a hospital 60, a government agency 62, which can also be a payer, and companies 64 providing healthcare products and services for detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The patient 12 can also grant permissions to access the patient's electronic health record to others, such as the employer 54, the payer 56, the pharmacy 58, the hospital 60, and the government agencies 62 via the healthcare record system 27, which can reside on the clinician computer 25 and/or one or more servers 52. Reference hereafter is also made to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 shows a system embodiment suitable for implementing a structured testing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, which in another embodiment can be a part of the chronic care management system 10 and communicate with such components, via conventional wired or wireless communication means. The system 41 can include the clinician computer 25 that is in communication with a server 52 as well as the collection device 24. Communications between the clinician computer 25 and the server 52 can be facilitated via a communication link to the public network 50, to a private network 66, or combinations thereof. The private network 66 can be a local area network or a wide are network (wired or wireless) connecting to the public network 50 via a network device 68 such as a (web) server, router, modem, hub, and the likes.

In one embodiment, the server 52 can be a central repository for a plurality of structured collection procedures (or protocols) 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, in which the details of a few exemplary structured collection procedures are provided in later sections. The server 52, as well as the network device 68, can function also as a data aggregator for completed ones of the structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d. Accordingly, in such an embodiment, data of a completed collection procedure(s) from a collection device of the patient 12 can then be provided from the server 52 and/or network device 68 to the clinician computer 25 when requested in response to retrieval for such patient data.

In one embodiment, one or more of the plurality of structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d on the server 52 can be provided over the public network 50, such as through a secure web interface 55 (FIG. 2A, showing another embodiment of the system 41) implemented on the patient computer 18, the clinician computer 25, and/or the collection device 24. In another embodiment, the clinician computer 25 can serve as the interface (wired or wireless) 72 between the server 52 and the collection device 24. In still another embodiment, the structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, as well as software 34, may be provided on a computer readable medium 40 and loaded directly on the patient computer 18, the clinician computer 25, and/or the collection device 24. In still another embodiment, the structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d may be provided pre-loaded (embedded) in memory of the collection device 24. In still other embodiments, new/updated/modified structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d may be sent between the patient computer 18, the clinician computer 25, the server 52 and/or the collection device 24 via the public network 50, the private network 66, via a direct device connection (wired or wireless) 74, or combinations thereof. Accordingly, in one embodiment the external devices e.g., computer 18 and 25, can be used to establish a communication link 72, 74 between the collection device 24 and still further electronic devices such as other remote Personal Computer (PC), and/or servers such as through the public network 50, such as the Internet and/or other communication networks (e.g., LANs, WANs, VPNs, etc.), such as private network 66.

The clinician computer 25, as a conventional personal computer/workstation, can include a processor 76 which executes programs, such as software 34, and such as from memory 78 and/or computer readable medium 40. Memory 78 can include system memory (RAM, ROM, EEPROM, etc.), and storage memory, such as hard drives and/or flash memory (internal or external). The clinician computer 25 can also include a display driver 80 to interface a display 82 with the processor 76, input/output connections 84 for connecting user interface devices 86, such as a keyboard and mouse (wired or wireless), and computer readable drives 88 for portable memory and discs, such as computer readable medium 40. The clinician computer 25 can further include communication interfaces 90 for connections to the public network 50 and other devices, such as collection device 24 (wired or wireless), and a bus interface 92 for connecting the above mentioned electronic components to the processor 76. Reference hereafter is now made to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating the portable collection device 24 depicted in FIG. 2. In the illustrated embodiment, the collection device 24 can include one or more microprocessors, such as processor 102, which may be a central processing unit comprising at least one more single or multi-core and cache memory, which can be connected to a bus 104, which may include data, memory, control and/or address buses. The collection device 24 can include the software 34, which provides instruction codes that cause a processor 102 of the device to implement the methods of the present invention that are discussed hereafter in later sections. The collection device 24 may include a display interface 106 providing graphics, text, and other data from the bus 104 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on a display 108. The display interface 106 may be a display driver of an integrated graphics solution that utilizes a portion of main memory 110 of the collection device 24, such as random access memory (RAM) and processing from the processor 102 or may be a dedicated graphic processing unit. In another embodiment, the display interface 106 and display 108 can additionally provide a touch screen interface for providing data to the collection device 24 in a well-known manner.

Main memory 110 in one embodiment can be random access memory (RAM), and in other embodiments may include other memory such as a ROM, PROM, EPROM or EEPROM, and combinations thereof. In one embodiment, the collection device 24 can include secondary memory 112, which may include, for example, a hard disk drive 114 and/or a computer readable medium drive 116 for the computer readable medium 40, representing for example, at least one of a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a flash memory connector (e.g., USB connector, Firewire connector, PC card slot), etc. The drive 116 reads from and/or writes to the computer readable medium 40 in a well-known manner. Computer readable medium 40, represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk (CD or DVD), flash drive, PC card, etc. which is read by and written to by the drive 116. As will be appreciated, the computer readable medium 40 can have stored therein the software 34 and/or structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d as well as data resulting from completed collections performed according to one or more of the collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d.

In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 112 may include other means for allowing the software 34, the collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, other computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into the collection device 24. Such means may include, for example, a removable storage unit 120 and an interface connector 122. Examples of such removable storage units/interfaces can include a program cartridge and cartridge interface, a removable memory chip (e.g., ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 120 (e.g. hard drives) and interface connector 122 which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 120 to the collection device 24.

The collection device 24 in one embodiment can include a communication module 124. The communication module 124 allows software (e.g., the software 34, the collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d) and data (e.g., data resulting from completed collections performed according to one or more of the collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d) to be transferred between the collection device 24 and an external device(s) 126. Examples of communication module 124 may include one or more of a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port (e.g., USB, firewire, serial, parallel, etc.), a PC or PCMCIA slot and card, a wireless transceiver, and combinations thereof. The external device(s) 126 can be the patient computer 18, the clinician computer 25, the handheld computing devices 36, such as a laptop computer, a personal digital assistance (PDA), a mobile (cellular) phone, and/or a dongle, a docking station, or device reader 22. In such an embodiment, the external device 126 may provided and/or connect to one or more of a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port (e.g., USB, firewire, serial, parallel, etc.), a PCMCIA slot and card, a wireless transceiver, and combinations thereof for providing communication over the public network 50 or private network 66, such as with the clinician computer 25 or server 52. Software and data transferred via communication module 124 can be in the form of wired or wireless signals 128, which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical, or other signals capable of being sent and received by communication module 124. For example, as is known, signals 128 may be sent between communication module 124 and the external device(s) 126 using wire or cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link, an infrared link, other communications channels, and combinations thereof. Specific techniques for connecting electronic devices through wired and/or wireless connections (e.g. USB and Bluetooth, respectively) are well known in the art.

In another embodiment, the collection device 24 can be used with the external device 132, such as provided as a handheld computer or a mobile phone, to perform actions such as prompt a patient to take an action, acquire a data event, and perform calculations on information. An example of a collection device combined with such an external device 126 provided as a hand held computer is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/424,757 filed Jun. 16, 2006 entitled “System and method for collecting patient information from which diabetes therapy may be determined,” assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference. Another example of a handheld computer is shown in the user guide entitled “Accu-Chek® Pocket Compass Software with Bolus Calculator User Guide” (2007) available from Roche Diagnostics.

In the illustrative embodiment, the collection device 24 can provide a measurement engine 138 for reading a biosensor 140. The biosensor 140, which in one embodiment is the disposable test strip 30 (FIG. 1), is used with the collection device 24 to receive a sample such as for example, of capillary blood, which is exposed to an enzymatic reaction and measured by electrochemistry techniques, optical techniques, or both by the measurement engine 138 to measure and provide a biomarker value, such as for example, a blood glucose level. An example of a disposable test strip and measurement engine is disclosed in U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2005/0016844 A1 “Reagent stripe for test strip” (Jan. 27, 2005), and assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference. In other embodiments, the measurement engine 138 and biosensor 140 can be of a type used to provide a biomarker value for other types of sampled fluids or analytes besides or in addition to glucose, heart rate, blood pressure measurement, and combinations thereof. Such an alternative embodiment is useful in embodiments where values from more then one biomarker type are requested by a structured collection procedure according to the present invention. In still another embodiment, the biosensor 140 may be a sensor with an indwelling catheter(s) or being a subcutaneous tissue fluid sampling device(s), such as when the collection device 24 is implemented as a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in communication with an infusion device, such as pump 46 (FIG. 1). In still another embodiments, the collection device 24 can be a controller implementing the software 34 and communicating between the infusion device (e.g., ambulatory infusion pump 46 and electronic insulin pen 48) and the biosensor 140.

Data, comprising at least the information collected by the biosensor 140, is provided by the measurement engine 138 to the processor 102 which may execute a computer program stored in memory 110 to perform various calculations and processes using the data. For example, such a computer program is described by U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/492,667, filed Jun. 26, 2009, titled “Method, System, and Computer Program Product for Providing Both an Estimated True Mean Blood Glucose Value and Estimated Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1C) Value from Structured Spot Measurements Of Blood Glucose,” and assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference. The data from the measurement engine 138 and the results of the calculation and processes by the processor 102 using the data is herein referred to as self-monitored data. The self-monitored data may include, but not limited thereto, the glucose values of a patient 12, the insulin dose values, the insulin types, and the parameter values used by processor 102 to calculate future glucose values, supplemental insulin doses, and carbohydrate supplement amounts as well as such values, doses, and amounts. Such data along with a date-time stamp 169 for each measured glucose value and administered insulin dose value is stored in a data file 145 of memory 110 and/or 112. An internal clock 144 of the collection device 24 can supply the current date and time to processor 102 for such use.

The collection device 24 can further provide a user interface 146, such as buttons, keys, a trackball, touchpad, touch screen, etc. for data entry, program control and navigation of selections, choices and data, making information requests, and the likes. In one embodiment, the user interface 146 can comprises one or more buttons 147, 149 for entry and navigation of the data provided in memory 110 and/or 112. In one embodiment, the user can use one or more of buttons 147, 149 to enter (document) contextualizing information, such as data related to the everyday lifestyle of the patient 12 and to acknowledge that prescribed tasks are completed. Such lifestyle data may relate to food intake, medication use, energy levels, exercise, sleep, general health conditions and overall well-being sense of the patient 12 (e.g., happy, sad, rested, stressed, tired, etc.). Such lifestyle data can be recorded into memory 110 and/or 112 of the collection device 24 as part of the self-monitored data via navigating through a selection menu displayed on display 108 using buttons 147, 149 and/or via a touch screen user interface provided by the display 108. It is to be appreciated that the user interface 146 can also be used to display on the display 108 the self monitored data or portions thereof, such as used by the processor 102 to display measured glucose levels as well as any entered data.

In one embodiment, the collection device 24 can be switched on by pressing any one of the buttons 147, 149 or any combination thereof. In another embodiment, in which the biosensor 140 is a test-strip, the collection device 24 can be automatically switched on when the test-strip is inserted into the collection device 24 for measurement by the measurement engine 138 of a glucose level in a sample of blood placed on the test-strip. In one embodiment, the collection device 24 can be switched off by holding down one of the buttons 147, 149 for a pre-defined period of time, or in another embodiment can be shut down automatically after a pre-defined period of non-use of the user interface 146.

An indicator 148 can also be connected to processor 102, and which can operate under the control of processor 102 to emit audible, tactile (vibrations), and/or visual alerts/reminders to the patient of daily times for bG measurements and events, such as for example, to take a meal, of possible future hypoglycemia, and the likes. A suitable power supply 150 is also provided to power the collection device 24 as is well known to make the device portable.

As mentioned above previously, the collection device 24 may be pre-loaded with the software 34 or by provided therewith via the computer readable medium 40 as well as received via the communication module 124 by signal 128 directly or indirectly though the external device 132 and/or network 50. When provided in the latter matter, the software 34 when received by the processor 102 of the collection device 24 is stored in main memory 110 (as illustrated) and/or secondary memory 112. The software 34 contains instructions, when executed by the processor 102, enables the processor to perform the features/functions of the present invention as discussed herein in later sections. In another embodiment, the software 34 may be stored in the computer readable medium 40 and loaded by the processor 102 into cache memory to cause the processor 102 to perform the features/functions of the invention as described herein. In another embodiment, the software 34 is implemented primarily in hardware logic using, for example, hardware components such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware state machine to perform the feature/functions described herein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s). In yet another embodiment, the invention is implemented using a combination of both hardware and software.

In an example software embodiment of the invention, the methods described hereafter can be implemented in the C++ programming language, but could be implemented in other programs such as, but not limited to, Visual Basic, C, C#, Java or other programs available to those skilled in the art. In still other embodiment, the program 34 may be implemented using a script language or other proprietary interpretable language used in conjunction with an interpreter. Reference hereafter is also made to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 depicts in tabular form a data file 145 containing data records 152 of self-monitored data 154 resulting from a structured collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. The data records 152 (e.g., rows) along with the self-monitoring data 154 (e.g., various one of the columns) can also provide associated therewith contextual information 156 (e.g., other various ones of the columns as well as via row and column header information). Such contextual information 156 can be collected either automatically, such as for example via input received automatically from the measurement engine, the biosensor, and/or any one of the other devices, or via input received from the user interface which was manually enter by the patient in response to a collection request (e.g., a question displayed by the processor 102 on the display 108) during the structured collection procedure. Accordingly, as such contextual information 156 can be provided with each data record 152 in a preferred embodiment, such information is readily available to a physician and no further collection of such information is necessarily needed to be provided again by the patient either manually or orally after completing the structured collection procedure. In another embodiment, if such contextual information 156 and/or additional contextual information is collected after completion of a structured collection procedure according to the present invention, such information may be provided in the associated data file and/or record 145, 152 at a later time such as via one of the computers 18, 25. Such information would then be associated with the self-monitored data in the data file 145, and thus would not need to be provided again orally or manually. Such a process in the latter embodiment may be needed in the situation where the structured collection procedure is implemented as or partly as a paper tool 38 which is used with a collection device incapable of running the software 34 implementing such a structured collection procedure.

It is to be appreciated that the date file 145 (or portions thereof, such as only the self-monitored data 154) can be sent/downloaded (wired or wireless) from the collection device 24 via the communication module 124 to another electronic device, such the external device 132 (PC, PDA, or cellular telephone), or via the network 50 to the clinician computer 25. Clinicians can use diabetes software provided on the clinician computer 25 to evaluate the received self-monitored data 154 as well as the contextual information 156 of the patient 12 for therapy results. An example of some of the functions which may be incorporated into the diabetes software and which is configured for a personal computer is the Accu-Chek® 360 Diabetes Management System available from Roche Diagnostics that is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/999,968 filed Dec. 7, 2007, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SETTING TIME BLOCK,” and assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

In a preferred embodiment, the collection device 24 can be provided as portable blood glucose meter, which is used by the patient 12 for recording self-monitored data comprising insulin dosage readings and spot measured glucose levels. Examples of such bG meters as mentioned above previously include but are not limited to, the Accu-Chek® Active meter and the Accu-Chek® Aviva system both by Roche Diagnostics, Inc. which are compatible with the Accu-Chek® 360° Diabetes management software to download test results to a personal computer or the Accu-Chek® Pocket Compass Software for downloading and communication with a PDA. Accordingly, it is to be appreciated that the collection device 24 can include the software and hardware necessary to process, analyze and interpret the self monitored data in accordance with predefined flow sequences (as described below in detail) and generate an appropriate data interpretation output. In one embodiment, the results of the data analysis and interpretation performed upon the stored patient data by the collection device 24 can be displayed in the form of a report, trend-monitoring graphs, and charts to help patients manage their physiological condition and support patient-doctor communications. In other embodiments, the bG data from the collection device 24 may be used to generated reports (hardcopy or electronic) via the external device 132 and/or the patient computer 18 and/or the clinician computer 25.

The collection device 24 can further provide the user and/or his or her clinician with at least one or more of the possibilities comprising: a) editing data descriptions, e.g. the title and description of a record; b) saving records at a specified location, in particular in user-definable directories as described above; c) recalling records for display; d) searching records according to different criteria (date, time, title, description etc.); e) sorting records according to different criteria (e.g., values of the bG level, date, time, duration, title, description, etc.); f) deleting records; g) exporting records; and/or h) performing data comparisons, modifying records, excluding records as is well known.

As used herein, lifestyle can be described in general as a pattern in an individual's habits such as meals, exercise, and work schedule. The individual additionally may be on medications such as insulin therapy or orals that they are required to take in a periodic fashion. Influence of such action on glucose is implicitly considered by the present invention.

It is to be appreciated that the processor 102 of the collection device 24 can implement one or more structured collection procedures 70 provided in memory 110 and/or 112. Each structured collection procedure 70 in one embodiment can be stand-alone software, thereby providing the necessary program instructions which when executed by the processor 102 cause the processor to perform the structured collection procedure 70 as well as other prescribed functions. In other embodiments, each structured collection procedure 70 can be part of the software 34, and can be then be selectively executed by the processor 102 either via receiving a selection from a menu list provided in the display 108 from the user interface 146 in one embodiment or via activation of a particular user interface, such as a structured collection procedure run mode button (not shown) provided to the collection device 24 in another embodiment. It is to be appreciated that the software 34, likewise, provides the necessary program instructions which when executed by the processor 102 cause the processor to perform the structured collection procedure 70 as well as other prescribed functions of the software 34 discussed herein. One suitable example of having a selectable structured collection procedure provided as a selectable mode of a collection meter is disclosed by in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/491,523, filed Jun. 25, 2009, titled “Episodic Blood Glucose Monitoring System With An Interactive Graphical User Interface And Methods Thereof,” assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

In still another embodiment, a command instruction can be sent from the clinician computer 25 and received by the processor 102 via the communication module 124, which places the collection device 24 in a collection mode which runs automatically the structured collection procedure 70. Such a command instruction may specify which of the one or more structured collection procedures to run and/or provide a structured collection procedure to run. In still another embodiment, a list of defined medical use cases or medical questions can be presented on the display 108 by the processor 102, and a particular structured collection procedure 70 can be automatically chosen by the processor 102 from a plurality of structured collection procedures (e.g., procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d) depending on the selection of the defined medical use cases or medical questions received by the processor 102 via the user interface 146.

In still another embodiment, after selection, the structured collection procedure(s) 70 can be provided through the computer readable medium e.g., 40 and loaded by the collection device 24, downloaded from computer 18 or 25, the other device(s) 132, or server 52. Server 52, for example, may be a healthcare provider or company providing such pre-defined structured collection procedures 70 for downloading according to a selected defined medical use case or question. It is to be appreciated that the structured collection procedure(s) 70 may be developed by a healthcare company (e.g. company 64) and implemented via the public network 50 through a webpage and/or made available for downloading on server 52, such as illustrated in FIG. 2. In still other embodiments, notices that a new structured collection procedure 70 is available for use on the collection device 24 to help address a particular use case/medical question that a user (e.g., healthcare provider and patient) may have can be provided in any standard fashion, such for via postal letters/cards, email, text messaging, tweets, and the likes.

In some embodiments, as mentioned above previously, a paper tool 38 can perform some of the functions provided by the diabetes software 34. An example of some of the functions which may be incorporated into the diabetes software 34 and which is configured as a paper tool 38 is the Accu-Chek® 360 View Blood Glucose Analysis System paper form available from Roche Diagnostics also disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/040,458 filed Feb. 29, 2007 entitled “Device and method for assessing blood glucose control,” assigned to Roche Diagnostic Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

In still another embodiment, the software 34 can be implemented on the continuous glucose monitor 28 (FIG. 1). In this manner, the continuous glucose monitor 28 can be used to obtain time-resolved data. Such time-resolved data can be useful to identify fluctuations and trends that would otherwise go unnoticed with spot monitoring of blood glucose levels and standard HbA1c tests. Such as, for example, low overnight glucose levels, high blood glucose levels between meals, and early morning spikes in blood glucose levels as well as how diet and physical activity affect blood glucose along with the effect of therapy changes.

In addition to collection device 24 and software 34, clinicians 14 can prescribe other diabetes therapy devices for patients 12 such as an ambulatory insulin pump 46 as well as electronically based insulin pen 48 (FIG. 1). The insulin pump 46 typically includes configuration software such as that disclosed in the manual “Accu-Chek® Insulin Pump Configuration Software” also available from Disetronic Medical Systems AG. The insulin pump 46 can record and provide insulin dosage and other information, as well as the electronically based insulin pen 48, to a computer, and thus can be used as another means for providing biomarker data as requested by the structured collection procedure 70 (FIG. 2) according to the present invention.

It is to be appreciated that, and as mentioned above previously, one or more of the method steps discussed hereafter can be configured as a paper tool 38 (FIG. 1), but preferably all the method steps are facilitated electronically on system 41 (FIG. 2) or on any electronic device/computer, such as collection device 24, having a processor and memory as a program(s) residing in memory. As is known, when a computer executes the program, instructions codes of the program cause the processor of the computer to perform the method steps associated therewith. In still other embodiments, some or all of the method steps discussed hereafter can be configured on computer readable medium 40 storing instruction codes of a program that, when executed by a computer, cause the processor of the computer to perform the method steps associated therewith. These method steps are now discussed in greater detail hereafter with reference made to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

Create a Structured Collection Procedure

FIG. 5A depicts a method 200 of creating a structured collection procedure 70 illustrated by FIG. 5B for a medical use case or question which may be implemented in any one of the above described devices 18, 24, 25, 26, 28, 36, 52 as stand alone software, as part of the diabetes software 34 or portions there of as part of paper tool 38. In step 202, a medical use case or question, hereafter referred to generally as use case(s), is selected and/or can be defined. It is to be appreciated that a use case may be, for example, one selected from the following medical use cases or questions: a desire to know the effects of eating a particular food; a desire to know the best time to take medication before and/or after with a meal; and a desire to know the effects of exercise on bG levels. Other use cases may be questions concerning finding a diagnosis, how best to initialize therapy for a patient, finding a determination of status of a patient disease progression, finding the best ways to optimize a patient therapy, and the like. Still other examples can be providing such structured collection procedures 70 which can be used to help address medical questions regarding fasting blood glucose, pre-prandial glucose values, postprandial glucose values, and the like. Other medical questions can be to control the biomarker in a predefined context, to optimize the biomarker in a predefined context, related to therapy onset, type of therapy, oral mono-therapy, oral combination therapy, insulin therapy, lifestyle therapy, adherence to therapy, therapy efficacy, insulin injection or inhalation, type of insulin, split of insulin in basal and bolus, and the likes. For example, medical questions regarding oral mono-therapy and oral combination could include those involving sulfonylureas, biguanides, thiazolidinediones, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, meglitinides, dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors, GLP-1 analogs, taspoglutide, PPAR dual alpha/gamma agonists, aleglitazar. The selected use case can be assigned to a medical use case parameter 220 depicted in FIG. 5B.

In step 204, the situation or problem surrounding the selected use case can be defined. This can be accomplished via looking at all the factors which may affect a change in the use case. For example, in the use case of desiring to know how best to optimize a patient's therapy some factors to look at may include stress, menstrual cycle, pre-dawn effect, background insulin, exercise, bolus timing with respect to a meal, basal rate, insulin sensitivity, post-prandial behavior, and the like such as shown by FIG. 5C.

In step 206, a determination can be made as to what kinds of analysis can be used to address or shed light on the situation or the problem. Such analysis may be, for example, selected from the following: evaluating the change in fasting blood glucose (FPG) values over the course of the collection procedure 701, monitoring one or more particular value over the duration of the collection procedure 70, determining an insulin to carbohydrate (I:C) ratio, determining insulin sensitivity, determining best time for administering a drug with respect to another variable, such as meal(s), and the like. In step 208, a sampling group determination can be made as to which information has to be collected, such as what biomarker(s) and the context(s) in which the biomarkers shall be collected, as well as when this information needs to be collected to conduct the analysis. For example, the sampling group can be defined as a string of data objects, each of which consists of: target type, e.g., time based which can use a target time (e.g., used for an alerting feature), a lower time window bound, an upper time window bound, etc., or data based which defines a data type (single, aggregate, or formula), the conditions for accepting the data (e.g., none, below a value, above a value, a formula, etc.), the type of collection (e.g., user input, sensor, data, etc.), as well as any reminder screen text (e.g., static, and/or dynamic in both formatting and value insertion) for each collection. The result of this process is a schedule of collection events 222 (FIG. 5B). Next in step 210, the manner in which each or a group of the schedule of collection events 222 is/are to be conducted in order to be useful for addressing the situation or problem of the selected use case is then determined. This results in one or more adherence criteria 224. In addition to and/or instead of the manner for performing a collection, the adherence criteria 224 may also be based on one or more biomarker values falling into a pre-defined range or is equal to a certain pre-defined value. In other embodiments, the adherence criteria can be a formula(s) which uses a biomarker datum or group of such data to determine if the resulting value falls into the pre-defined range or is equal to a certain pre-defined value.

For example, adherence criteria 224 can describe the parameters around the events 237 that the patient 12 needs to perform such as tests within a certain window, fasting for a given amount of time, sleeping for a given amount of time, exercise, low stress, not menstruating, etc. As such, an adherence criteria 224 can establish the context of the information about to be provided. Adherence criteria 224 can also be used as mentioned above previously in another context to provide an assessment of whether the data is acceptable, and when used in such a context may be referenced to as “acceptance” criteria. For example, before a sample is taken, the adherence criteria 224 can establish whether steps leading up to taking of the sample are accomplished. For example, the processor 102 in response to a request 240 displays the question, “Have you been fasting for the last 8 hours?”, wherein a “Yes” response received by the processor via the user interface 146 meets the adherence criteria 224 for this step. In another example, after the sample is taken, the processor 102 can assess the received data for reasonableness using other adherence (acceptance) criteria. For example, based on prior data, a fasting bG sample should be between 120-180 mg/dl, but the received value was of 340 mg/dl, and thus fails such adherence (acceptance) criteria since being out of the predefined range for an acceptable value. In such an example, an adherence event 242 occurs wherein the processor 102 could prompt for an additional sample. In such a case, if the re-sampling fails too (i.e., not between 120-180 mg/dl), the assessment provided by the processor 102 is that the patient 12 has not fasted, and thus the processor 102 as instructed by the adherence criteria upon a failing of the re-sampling extend automatically the events 237 in the schedule of events 222 accordingly.

Next in step 212, the condition(s) and context(s) in which the schedule of events 222 is to be started and ended can be determined. This results in one or more entry criteria 226 and exit criteria 228 being provided for the schedule of events 222 as well as possibly for a group of other schedule of events to which the schedule of events 222 belongs if providing a package of structured collection procedures, e.g., procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d, which may run concurrently and/or sequentially one after the other.

For example, the one or more entry criteria 226 can be used to determine whether the patient meets the conditions to use the collection procedure by the processor 102 checking that, for example, the patient 12 meets the entry criteria 226 based on current age being in a range, HbAlc being in a range, that the patient has a particular disease, has had the disease over a minimum period of time, has a Body Mass Index (BMI) in a range, had a Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) in a range, had a particular drug sensitivity, is taking a particular drug, taking a particular drug dosage, meets one or more prerequisites of another structured collection procedure, has completed one or more of another structured collection procedure, does not have one or more particular pre-conditions, e.g., pregnant, not fasting, or contraindications, e.g., feeling ill, feverish, vomiting, etc., and combinations thereof. Entry criteria 226 can also initiate the schedule of events 222 by an initiation event such as a time of day, a time of week, meal, taking a meal with a time offset, exercise, and exercise with a time offset, use of a therapeutic drug, use of a therapeutic drug with time offset, physiological circumstances, biomarker range, and biomarker within a predetermined range calculated as an offset from a prior biomarker value. Example of a physiological circumstance can be that entry criteria will be met to start a structured collection procedure when a pre-determined number of a physiological event, e.g., hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, a certain temperature at a certain of day, and the like, occur within a pre-defined amount of time, e.g., hours, day, weeks, etc. Accordingly, the entry criteria can be used to support the use of need to met prerequisites, indications for usage, and/or contraindications for usage. For example, an entry criteria 226 could define a prerequisite condition which in order for the structured collection procedure 70 to run an Insulin Sensitivity optimization, the processor 102 must verify first that a structured collection procedure for a Basal titration is completed and/or has a desired result and/or as well as another structured collection procedure for an insulin to carbohydrate ratio is completed and/or has a desired result. In another example, an entry criteria 226 could be defined with needing to meet certain indications for usage in which certain structured collection procedures could provide segregated uses for diabetics who are Type 1 vs. Type 2 as well as types of structured collection procedures which can be used to titrate for specific drugs. In another example, the entry criteria 226 could be defined with needing to meet certain contraindications for usage, in which for example, certain structured collection procedures 70 will not run if the patient 12 is pregnant, sick, etc.

Examples of the one or more exit criteria 228 can be based on the processor 102 determining that a particular value is reached, that a mean average of the samples values are in a range, that a particular event(s) and/or condition(s) have or have not occurred, and combinations thereof. Other conditions when the procedure may stop can include adverse events such as a hypoglycemic event, the patient is sick, the patient undergoes a therapy change, etc. Additional detail may also by provided by the processor 102 on the display 108 to the patient 12 based on what the specific exit criteria has been met. For example, in one example, if the patient 12 measures a glucose value indicating hypoglycemia, upon exiting the procedure, the processor 102 run automatically another alternative procedure which instructs the patient 12 to ingest carbohydrates and measure his blood glucose value every half an hour until the blood glucose exceeds 120 mg/dL. For this alternative procedure, the patient 12 can also be requested by the processor 102 to document his meals, activity, stress, and other relevant details to ensure that the conditions that led to hypoglycemia are recorded. The patient 12 may also be instructed by the processor 102 to contact the clinician 14 in this and other such special cases as deemed fit. Exit criteria can also include, for example, criteria for ending such as exiting after a successful completion, or exiting after an indeterminate completion, such as expiration of a predetermined timeout (logistical end), e.g., no result after n days, where n=1 to 365 days, or by termination e.g., exit with unsuccessful termination due to a fail-safe. It is to be appreciated that the structured collection procedure 70 can also be defined to end automatically not only based on meeting the exit criteria 228, but also when the patient 12 fails to perform a request to an acceptable level of compliance and/or when a patient physiological state has changed such that the patient is should not carry out the schedule of events 222, thereby failing adherence criteria 224, wherein the adherence event 242 is to end the structured collection procedure.

In step 214, guidance 230 for the user during collection can be determined as well as any options 232 for customizing the collection. For example, for guidance 230, the clinician 14 can use a default list of messages, or tailor messages to guide the patient 12 during execution of the collection procedure 70. As an example, one message could be provided on a successful data acquisition (i.e., meets the adherence criteria 224) would read, “Thank you. Your next scheduled measurement is at 12:30 pm.” Alarms, such as provided by indicator 148, can also be associated with the collection procedure 70 that remind the patient 12 to take a measurement and can include a snooze functionality should the patient 12 need additional time to conduct the measurement. The snooze functionality as well as other device features are discussed further in later sections.

The result of steps 208-214 is the structured collection procedure 70 being created in step 216 which associates together the use case parameter 220, the scheduled of events 222, the adherence criteria 224, the entry criteria 226, the exit criteria 228, guidance 230, and the options 232. In one embodiment, at the time of generating a collection procedure 70 the clinician 14 also generates printed material that explains to the patient the following aspects (at a minimum): the purpose of the collection procedure 70 and expected ideal outcome, i.e., setting a goal for the collection procedure 70; the collection procedure 70 design and the number of measurements needed; the entry criteria 226 that the patient 12 must satisfy before initiating the collection procedure 70 and before taking each reading; and the exit criteria 228 under which the patient 12 should cease to continue the collection procedure 70. Such printed material as well as the guidance 230 that can be provided during the execution of the collection procedure 70 ensures that the patient is fully aware of why the data collection procedure is being carried out.

Examples, of the structured collection procedure 70 may be, for example, a structured collection procedure for determining an insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio, for determining bolus timing in respect to meal start, and for determining an exercise equivalent to ingested carbohydrates. In step 218, the structured collection procedure 70 is then made available for implementation and use in the system 41, such as in any of the above discussed manners mentioned with regards to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. A structured collection procedure 70 accordingly may be provided via the above process, such as by either the medical community or healthcare companies 64, to help the clinician 14 address and/or investigate a defined medical use case or problem.

FIG. 5B shows the interactions of the parameters 222, 224, 226, and 228 of the structured collection procedure 70 for obtaining contextualized biomarker data from a diabetic patient to address a medical use case upon which the structured collection procedure is based. As mentioned above, the use case parameter 220 may be provided to identify the medical use case or question to which the parameters 222, 224, 226, and 228 address. For example, the processor 76 of the clinician computer 25, the processor 102 of the collection device 24, and/or the server 52 may read the medical use case parameters 220 from a plurality of structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d (FIG. 2), such as provided on these devices and/or within the system 41, and provide a list of the available structured collection procedures, such as on the display 82 of the clinician computer 25 or the display 108 of the collection device 24. Additionally, the clinician computer 25, the patient computer 18, and/or the server 52 can use the medical use case parameter 220 for locating/sorting/filtering such structured collection procedures according to a medical use case(s).

As mentioned above, the entry criteria 226 establishes the requirements for initiating the structured collection procedure 70 to obtain patient data which includes biomarker data, particularly, collected in a predefined context. In one embodiment, the processor 102 of the collection device 24 can use the entry criteria 226 to determine when an associated structured collection procedure 70 is appropriate for the patient's physiological context and to ensure that all of the necessary inputs to the associated structured collection procedure have been established. Therefore, it is to be appreciated that the start date and/time of a structured collection procedure may dynamically change automatically by the processor 102 of the collection device 24 if the predefined condition(s) of the entry criteria 226 is not satisfied. Accordingly, until the entry criteria 226 is satisfied, the start date and/time of the associated structured collection procedure 70 can be at some unknown time in the future.

For example, in one embodiment, a structured collection procedure 70 can be chosen automatically by the processor 102 from a plurality of structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, such as provided in memory 110 of the collection device 24, memory of the computer 18, 25 and/or from server 52, based on satisfying the condition(s) of a defined entry criteria 226 for an associated structured collection procedure. For example, in one embodiment, a first structured collection procedure, such as procedure 70 d, is useful for showing trends in blood glucose levels (“bG Level Trending”). Therefore, an entry criteria 226 for the first structured collection procedure 70 d may be for the patient to have a bG level mean which has elevated over a defined period (e.g., a past number of days, weeks, and months from the current date) above a certain pre-defined rate. For a second structured collection procedure, such as procedure 70 a, its entry criteria 226 may require a particular number of bG measurement for a pre-breakfast measurement over a defined period (e.g., a past number of days, weeks, months, from the current date) being below a pre-defined bG value. In such an example, the processor 102 upon start up in one embodiment when commanded, such as via input received via the user interface, in another embodiment, or at a scheduled time as programmed by the software 34 in another embodiment, can run through the various entry criteria 226 provided by the various structured collection procedures 70 a and 70 d that are, for example, provided in memory 110 of the collection device 24 and determine whether the stated condition(s) for the entry criteria 226 of a particular procedure 70 is satisfied. In this example, the processor 102 determines that the historical data from past measurements in memory 110 indicate that the patient's bG level mean has been elevating, and that the entry criteria 226 for the first collection procedure 70 d has been met, but not the entry criteria for the second collection procedure 70 a. In this example, the processor 102 then automatically selects and starts the first structured collection procedure 70 d based on the above-mentioned analysis.

It is also to be appreciated that the use of the entry criteria 226 can help to reduce the misallocation of medical expenses by assuring that the indications of use for the structured collection procedure 70 have been met before starting the schedule of collection events 222. The entry criteria 226 as well can help assure that any requests to perform multiple structured collection procedures do not overlap if incompatible, are not unnecessary repeats of each other, or provide a significant burden on the patient. In this manner, many of the noted problems in which a patient may avoid any further attempts to diagnose their chronic disease or to optimize therapy can be both addressed and avoided automatically by the processor 102 of the collection device 24 via use of the entry criteria 226.

As shown by FIG. 5B, the entry criteria 226 can include context specific entry criteria 234, procedure specific entry criteria 236, and combination thereof. Examples of context specific entry criteria 234 can include one or more variables to identify meals, low blood glucose events, insulin type and dosage, stress, and the like. In another example, the context specific entry criteria 234 can be defined such as in the form of a specific question(s), to which the processor 102 requires a specific answer to be received from patient via input from the user interface 146. For example, the processor 102 in executing the entry criteria 226 may display on the display 108 the question of whether the patient is willing and able to perform the structured collection procedure 70 over the required period. If the patient responses affirmatively via the user interface 146, then the entry criteria 226 has been satisfied and the processor 102 continues automatically with performing the collection events 237 according to the their associated timing as defined in the structured collection procedure 70. If the patient responses in the negative to the displayed question, then the processor 102 will not continue with the structured collection procedure 70, and may for example, re-schedule the asking of such a question to a future time, such as if designated by an options parameter.

Examples of procedure specific entry criteria 236 can include one or more variables to identify disease state, disease status, selected therapy, parameter prerequisites, insulin to carbohydrate ratio prior to testing insulin sensitivity, incompatible collection procedures, and the like. The procedure specific entry criteria 236 can be defined such that the processor 102 will continue automatically with the structured collection procedure 70 with one of three initiators—the patient 12, the clinician 14, or data, e.g., if the condition(s) of the entry criteria 226 is satisfied. For example, the procedure specific entry criteria 236 can be satisfy if the clinician 14 has prescribed the structured collection procedure 70, such as via an authorized user entering via the user interface 146 a valid password to unlock the particular structured collection procedure for use, in one embodiment. In another embodiment, the clinician 14 can send the password or an authorization code from clinician computer 25 and/or server 52 to the collection device 24 which prescribes (authorizes) the collection procedure 70 for use by the patient 12 on the collection device 24. It is to be appreciated that one or more structured collection procedure 70 can be provided in memory 110 of the collection device 24 which cannot be used by the patient 12, and which can be also hidden from being viewed on the display 108, such as in a selection list, by the patient until authorized by the clinician 14.

The procedure specific entry criteria 236 can be satisfy by a user for example, by the user selecting a particular structured collection procedure 70 from a listing of structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d provided on the display 108. An example of a data initiated procedure for criteria 236 would be that a biomarker measurement(s) provided to the processor 102 indicates a certain condition which must have occurred or be present in order for the entry criteria 226 for the particular structured collection procedure to be satisfied. Such a condition, for example, can be the occurrence of a single event, such as a severe hypoglycemic event, or a series of events, such as hypoglycemic events within a given, a predetermined time frame, such as in 24 hours from a start time, in one week from a start time, etc, a calendar date-time, and the like.

Accordingly, the entry criteria 226 can be a single criterion or multiple criteria that establish context and/or condition of the patient's physiology that are relevant to the medical use case being addressed by the structured collection procedure 70. In another embodiment, the entry criteria 226 can be assessed after patient data has been collected, such as, on historical patient data.

The schedule of events 222 specifies one or more events 237 which each comprises at least one or more variables defining a performance time 238, the guidance 230 to perform the event, requests 240 for patient actions, which may include a request for information from the patient and/or a request for collection of at least one type of biomarker data from the patient, and combinations thereof. For performance time 238, the schedule of events 222 can specify timing of each event 237, such as for a biomarker sampling at a particular time on three consecutive work days, or one sample at time of wake-up, one sample thirty minutes later, and another sample one hour later.

The guidance 230 for each event 237 and for any criteria 224, 226, 228 may include, for example, providing electronic reminders (acoustic, visual) to start, end and/or wake up at a particular time, to perform a bG collection at a particular time, to ingest a particular meal or food(s) at a particular time, to perform a certain exercise(s) at a particular time, take medication at a particular time, and the like. Guidance 230 may also include information, questions and requests to record particular information about physiology, health, sense of well-being, etc., at a particular time, suggestion to improve compliancy with the collection procedure, encouragement, and positive/negative feedback.

It is to be appreciated that the events 237 define all the steps that are necessary to be preformed in advance of as well as after a biomarker sampling according to a request 240, such that a reproducible set of circumstances, i.e., context before and/or after the sampling, is created in the biomarker data for the biomarker sampling. Examples of such biomarker data, in the context of diabetes, include fasting blood glucose values, pre-prandial glucose values, postprandial glucose values, and the like. Examples of a set of circumstances can include data associated with the biomarker value which identifies collected information in the patient data about meals, exercises, therapeutic administration, sleep, hydration, and the likes.

Each of the events 237 in the schedule of events 222 can be time-based, event-based, or both. An event 237 can also be a start of a meal, a wake-up time, start of exercise, a therapeutic administration time, a relative offset used with a prior glucose value, or a time indicating movement above or below a predetermined biomarker value threshold. The events 237 can also include any required patient actions necessary to be performed in advance of and during biomarker sampling such that reproducible circumstances are created at the time of biomarker sampling. This can includes one or more of meals, exercise, therapeutic administration, sleep, hydration, and the like. Additionally, the events 237 in the schedule of events 222 can be adjusted (number, types, timing, etc.), to accommodate work schedule, stressors, and the like of the patient 12.

As mentioned above previously, the adherence criteria 224 is used to assess qualitatively whether an event 237 performed according to the schedule of events 222 provided data which is acceptable to addressing the medical use case upon which the structured collection procedure 70 is based. In particularly, the adherence criteria 224 can provide variables and/or values used to validate data from a performed event 237. For example, an adherence criteria 224 can be a check performed by the processor 102 of the collection device 24 that a value collected in response to an event 237 is within a desired range, or is above, below, or at a desired value, wherein the value may be a time, a quantity, a type, and the like. The same or different adherence criteria 224 may be associated with each of the events 237 within the schedule of events 222 as well with the entry criteria 226 in one embodiment, and as being the exit criteria 228 in another embodiment, such as illustrated by FIG. 6D (i.e., “stop exercising when bG back in target range” which defines both the adherence and exit criteria). In one embodiment, one or more events 237 in the schedule of events 222 may be modified (e.g., added, deleted, delayed, etc.) if a particular event or events fail to met the adherence criteria 224 for the particular event or events. In one embodiment, the failure of the adherence criteria 224 can trigger an adherence event 242. In one embodiment, upon occurrence of an adherence event 242 due to the associated adherence criteria 224 for an event 237 not being met or satisfied, the processor 102 may be required one or more additional actions as a consequence. For example, the processor 102 may prompt on the display 108 additional information to the patient, and/or prompt a question to determine whether the patient 12 is sick, stressed, or unable to perform the request e.g., eat the meal, or exercise. If the patient answers “Yes”, e.g., via the user interface 146, then as part of the adherence event 242 the processor 102 can provide a delay to the schedule of event (i.e. suspend). In one embodiment, the delay can continue until the patient indicated that he or she is better in response to another question prompter by the processor 102, such as the next day or after a predefined amount of time as also part of the adherence event. For example, the patient 12 is prompted by the processor 102 to administer a drug, but the patient is not at home, such as for example, where his/her insulin is located. The patient 12 can select the delay via the user interface 146, wherein the processor 102 re-prompts the patient after a predetermined amount of time. This delay may also have an upper limit in which if the schedule of events is not re-started within a certain amount of the time, the structured collection procedure 70 in such a circumstance may just end. In another embodiment, another form of an adherence event is a violation event, which results when the person executing a structured collection procedure 70 fails to make a recommended change in response to a request. For example, the request may be for the patient to adjust a drug dosage from 10U to 12U, wherein the patient answers in the negative to a question on the displayed on the display 108 asking if the patient will or has complied with such a change. In response to such a violation event, the processor 102 may also send a message and/or provide a delay as previously discussed above concerning the adherence event.

In another example and in one embodiment, a bG measurement must be collected before each meal in order for a structured collection procedure 70 to provide data that is useful in addressing the medical use case or question for which it was designed, such as identified by the use case parameter 220. If, in this example, the patient fails to take a bG measurement for the lunch meal in response to a request 240 for such a collection according to the schedule of the event 222, and hence the adherence criteria 224 for that event 237 fails to be satisfied, the processor 102 in response to the associated adherence event 242 can be programmed according to instructions in the collection procedure 70 to cancel all remaining events 237 in the schedule of events 222 for that day, mark the morning bG measurement stored in the data file (such as data file 145 (FIG. 4) as invalid, and reschedule for the schedule of event 222 for the next day. Other examples of further actions in which the processor 102 may take in response to an adherence event 242 may be to dynamically change the structured collection procedure by switch to a secondary schedule of event, which may be easier for the patient to perform, provide additional events for measurements to make up the missing data, change the exit criteria from a primary to a secondary exit criterion providing modified criterion(s), change the adherence criteria from a primary to a secondary adherence criterion, fill in the missing data for the failing event with (an estimate from) historical data, perform a particular calculation to see if the structured collection procedure 70 can still be successfully performed, send a message to a particular person, such as a clinician, of the failing event, provide a certain indication in the associated data record 152 to either ignore or estimate the missing data point, and the likes. In still another embodiments, the adherence criteria 224 can be dynamically assessed, such as for example, based on one or more biomarker values and/or input received from the user interface in response to one or more questions, via an algorithm which determines whether the collected data provides a value which is useful in addressing the medical use case or case. In this example, if the calculated adherence value is not useful, for example, does not fall into a desired range or meet a certain pre-define value, then further processing as defined by the resulting adherence event would then take place, such as any one or more of the processes discussed above.

The exit criteria 228 as mentioned previously above establishes the requirements for exiting or completing the structured collection procedure 70, so that the structured collection procedure 70 has adequate contextual data to answer the medical question addressed by the structured collection procedure 70. The exit criteria 228 can help increase the efficiency of the structured collection procedure 70 by minimizing the number of required samples needed to address the medical use case. By “addressing”, it is meant that sufficient patient data has been collected in which the clinician 14 may render an assessment to the medical use case. In other embodiments, the assessment may be indicated by a given confidence interval. A confidence interval is a group of discrete or continuous values that is statistically assigned to the parameter. The confidence interval typically includes the true value of the parameter at a predetermined portion of the time.

As with the entry criteria 226, the exit criteria 228 can comprise one or more of context specific exit criteria 244, procedure specific entry criteria 246, and combinations thereof. Examples of context specific exit criteria 244 can include one or more variables to identify mood, desired blood glucose events (i.e., blood glucose level), to indicate stress, illness, contraindications, such as for example, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, vomiting, a fever, and the likes. Examples of procedure specific entry criteria 246 can include one or more variables to identify a number of events meeting the adherence criteria, biomarker values being in a desired pre-determined range and/or at a desired pre-determined value, a desired disease state, desired disease status, no change in the biomarker after a pre-determined period, or no significant progress over a pre-determined period to a desired biomarker value, and the like. It is to be appreciated that in one embodiment the exit criteria 228 can establish the condition(s) needed to be met for entry criteria 226 of a second structured collection procedure 70. For example, upon having a suitable Insulin-to-Carbohydrate (I:C) determined with a first collection procedure, such as for example, structured collection procedure 70 b (FIG. 6B), running a structured test for determining the best time for administering a bolus in regards to a start of a meal, such as for example, structured collection procedure 70 c (FIG. 6C), which needs a current I:C ratio, can be conditioned such that the processor 102 can implement automatically a schedule of events of the second structured collection procedure 70 c upon meeting the exit criteria of the first structured collection procedure 70 b at some unknown time. In other embodiment, for example, the exit criteria 228 of a first structured collection procedure 70 that is being run by the processor 102 according to the schedule of events 222 and the entry criteria 226 of the second structured collection procedure 70 both can be based on the same one or more contraindications, such as mentioned above. In such an embodiment, upon occurrence of a contraindication being provided to and/or detected by the processor 102, such as via the user interface 146 and/or the biosensor 140, respectively, which in this example meets the exit criteria 228 of the first structured collection procedure 70, the processor 102 would automatically start the schedule of events of the second structured collection procedure 70 as the entry criteria 226 of the second structured collection procedure 70 has also been met. An example of such a second structured collection procedure 70 which can be started via exiting a first structured collection procedure can be one which has a schedule of events 222 which requests a biomarker samplings at a routine interval, e.g., every 30 minutes, every hour, every day at a particular time, etc., until the contraindication(s) clears (e.g., biomarker value(s) reaches a desire range or value, patient 12 indicates to processor 102 via user interface 146 no longer having a contraindication(s), expiration of a predefined period, etc.). Such an embodiment is useful if recording the context and values of the events after the occurrence of the contraindication(s) is a desire and in which the first collection procedure should be exited when a contraindication(s) occurs.

The exit criteria 228 can be a single criterion or multiple criteria that establish the conditions to exit the structured collection procedure 70. The conditions are provided in a preferred embodiment such to ensure that adequate contextualized biomarker data has been obtained to answer the medical question being addressed by the collection method. For example, such that a predetermined number of valid samples have been acquired, or that the variability in the samples is below a predetermined threshold. Therefore, it is to be appreciated that the end date and/time of the collection procedure 70 may be dynamic and be changed automatically by the processor 102 if the predefined condition(s) of the exit criteria 228 is not satisfied. Likewise, the conditions of the exit criteria 228 may be dynamic and be changed automatically be the processor 102 such for example if a particular adherence criteria 224 is satisfied or not satisfied. For example, in one embodiment if adherence criteria 224 for a particular collection event 237 is met, then the processor 102 is instructed to use a first exit criterion and if not met, then the processor 102 is instructed to use a second exit criterion that is different from the first exit criterion. Accordingly, until the exit criteria 228 is satisfied, the end date and/time of the structured collection procedure 70 can be at some unknown time in the future. In another embodiment, the exit criteria 228 can be assessed after patient data has been collected, such as, on historical patient data.

It is to be appreciated that the entry and exit criteria 226, 228 together with the adherence criteria 224 can help to reduce both the time to perform the structured collection procedure 70 and the expense associated with the collection by defining one or more of the acceptable conditions, values, structure and context needed to perform the schedule of events 222 in an effort to make every collection event 237 count and/or reduce consumption of test strips 30 with unneeded collections that do not help address the medical use case or question. Hereafter reference is made to FIGS. 6A-6E.

Structured Collection Procedure Examples

FIGS. 6A-E illustrate examples of some structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d depicting their functions which can easily be translated by one of ordinary skill in the related art into instruction code which may be implemented on any one of the devices the above described devices 18, 24, 25, 26, 28, 36, 52. Therefore, for brevity, no discussion is provided in regard to pseudo-code or actual code relating to these illustrated functions.

FIG. 6A diagrammatically illustrates an embodiment of a structured collection procedure 70 a used to obtain contextualized biomarker data from a diabetic patient. The horizontal axis shows the performance times 238 of the various events 237, and the vertical axis shows adherence criteria 224 without values. In the illustrated embodiment, the events 237 can include recording information regarding a meal 248 and sleep 250 in which to provide context 252 for the five-biomarker samplings 254 also events 237 that are part of the schedule of events 222. In this example, the adherence criteria 224 for the meal 248 can be a value which must be greater than a minimum value, e.g., for a carbohydrate amount. The entry criteria 226, for example, can comprise a biomarker value being above a particular value such as required to meet contextualization requirements to begin the structured collection procedure 70 a. The exit criteria 228 as well can comprise a biomarker values being below a particular value such as also required to meet contextualization requirements to end the structured collection procedure 70 a. Such a structured collection procedure 70 is useful for helping to address a number of medical use cases.

GLP1 Structured Collection Procedure

For example, several epidemiological studies have confirmed that elevated postprandial glucose (PPG) levels are a significant predictor of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in type 2 diabetes (T2D). For this reason, there is a family of human once-weekly long acting glucagon-like peptide-1 (GL P1) drugs which can be prescribed to T2Ds who show high post prandial bG values. These GLP 1 drugs are similar to the natural hormone GLP-1 which has a key role in blood sugar regulation by stimulating insulin secretion and suppressing glucagon secretion. Therefore, a structured collection procedure 70 can be provided in one embodiment which proposes an intensive measurement of bG values during the time after one or more meals over time allows therapy efficacy to be shown by means of observed reduced postprandial bG values. Based on such observed values, doses recommendation for a GLP 1 drug and/or whether a particular GLP 1 drug is the right drug at all for the patient can be determined.

For example, the structured collection procedure 70 could be provided on a collection device 24 for when a patient has been prescribed to administer a particular drug, e.g., a GLP 1 drug. In the case of a GLP 1 drug, in which determination of drug efficacy is desired, the entry criteria 226 for such a structured collection procedure could then be that the patient must affirm to the processor 102 in response to a question displayed on the display 108 to perform the structured collection procedure 70 over a period of time (e.g., over the next 4 to 24 weeks) and/or the processor 102 has determined that the mean PPG level of the patient from prior post prandial bG values over a period (e.g., week, month, etc.) are high (e.g., greater than 141 mg/dl). Still other factors could be used as the entry criteria 226, such as fasting blood glucose being more than a certain value, e.g., 126 mg/dl or less than a certain value, e.g., 240 mg/dl.

After the conditions of the entry criteria 226 have been satisfied and confirmed by the processor 102, the schedule of events 222 is then automatically run by the processor 102. The schedule of events 222 would specify desired collection events 237 in which the processor 102 would automatically prompt the patient for entering post prandial bG values after breakfast, lunch, and dinner (i.e., performing a bG measurement on a sample provided to a test strip that is read by the measurement engine and provided to the processor for storing in a data record and display). As customized by the prescribing physician, the schedule of events 222 could also define a collection event 237 with a performance time 238 in which the patient must administer the drug as well as to provide a reminder of the dosage and a request 240 for confirmation from the patient when the drug has been administered. For example, the processor 102 in executing the schedule of events 222 would automatically prompt the patient to administer dosages at the times specified by the collection events 237 in the schedule of events 222, e.g., 10 mg of Taspoglutide on a certain day of the week, and then after a period, a second dosage according to a second interval, e.g., after 4 weeks, then 20 mg also on a certain day of the week. A collection event 237 could also be defined in the schedule of events 222 in which the processor 102 makes a request on the display 108 for information, such as whether the patient is feeling well, to provide an indication of energy level, to provide an indication of size of meals consumed, and the like.

A condition(s) for the adherence of each entered post prandial bG value could be provided via the use of adherence criteria 224 in which any post prandial bG value entered (i.e., measured) an amount of time before or after the prompting, e.g., a testing window of ±30 minutes, such a measured value would not be accepted as a valid measurement for the schedule of events 222 by the processor 102. In one embodiment, the processor 102 can take further action automatically based on the adherence criteria 224 assessment preformed automatically by the processor 102. For example, if a bG measurement was taken before a measurement prescribed by a collection event in the schedule of events 222 and outside the defined testing window, e.g., −30 minutes before the collection event time, the processor 102 in such a case will automatically notify the patient that a measurement is still needed at the prescribed time as the previous measurement was not accepted since outside the testing window. Likewise, if after the testing window, e.g., the collection event time +30 minute, the processor 102 can automatically notify the patient that the previous measurement was not accepted since outside the testing window and provide encouragement on the display 108 to the patient to make an effort take a measurement within the testing window.

The exit criteria 228 for such a GLP 1 structured collection procedure 70 could be an indication that the mean bG value, in using a minimum amount of time (e.g., days, weeks, months, etc.), a minimum number of accepted measurements, or both, has reached a desire value. Likewise, the exit criteria 228 could be an indication that the mean bG value, after a maximum amount of time (e.g., days, weeks, months, etc.), a maximum number of accepted measurements, or both, has not reached a desire value. Still further, the exit criteria 228 can be other factors which indicate that the drug or dosage is not at all right for the patient, such as the patient responding as having nausea and/or vomiting each day for a minimum number of days in response to a collection event for such information prompted by the processor 102 on the display 108. Still other factors could be used as the exit criteria 228, such as fasting blood glucose being less than a certain value, e.g., 126 mg/dl or greater than a certain value, e.g., 240 mg/dl. The data collected from such a drug base structured collection procedure 70 can then be used by a physician to make a dosage recommendation for the GLP 1 drug and/or determine whether the particular GLP 1 drug is the right drug or not for the patient.

Another example is diagrammatically depicted by FIG. 6B which shows a structured collection procedure 70 b which has a defined medical use case parameter 220 indicating that the procedure can be helpful for determining suitability of an insulin to carbohydrate (I:C) ratio. As illustrated, the entry criteria 226 is defined as having the patient simply acknowledge guidance 230 of selecting a fast-acting meal, to note that the insulin dose is calculated with the current I:C ratio as well as agreeing not to exercise, take additional food or insulin during the testing period. For example, the processor 102 can present on the display 108 such guidance 230, which the user can then acknowledge after reading with either a “Yes” or a “No” entered via using the user interface 146 for the desired entry choice. If the user enters “Yes”, then the entry criteria 226 is satisfied, and the processor 102 automatically starts the schedule of events 222 defined in the structured collection procedure 70 b. In another embodiment, the entry criteria 226 may be or include satisfying a request 237 for selecting a fast-acting meal. For example, the request 237 for selection can be the processor 102 displaying on the display 108 a selection menu providing a listing of fast-acting meals to which input of such a selection via the user interface 146 is needed. For example, selection of a fast-acting meal may be made via a press of one of the buttons 147, 149 or via the touch screen interface if provided by display 108. Such a selection can then be stored in memory 110 of the collection device 24 such as setup data 163 (FIG. 4) which may be part of the data file 145 (FIG. 4) for the structured collection procedure 70 b. In an alternative embodiment, a particular fast-acting meal may be recommended by the structured collection procedure 70 b.

As shown, the schedule of events 222 can comprise one or more events, such as the plurality of events 237 a-k illustrated and with each having associated performance times 238 a-k and requests for action 240 a-k. As shown, the requests for action 240 a-c, and 240 f-k are requests for the user to take a bG level measurement, request 240 d is to take an insulin dose, and request 240 e is to eat the fast acting meal. Also shown is that events 238 f-k each have an adherence criteria 224, which must be met if the data for events 238 f-k are to be recorded in the data file 145. In this example, the adherence criteria 224 requires that the actions 240 f-k be completed within ∀20 minutes of their corresponding performance times 238 f-k in order for a data record 152 recording the received value(s) for the corresponding event 2377 f-k to count towards completing the collection procedure 70 b. In one embodiment, the processor 102 will make each of the requests 240 a-k at their associated performance times 238 a-k in order to obtain resulting data values e.g., data values 256 a-k (FIG. 4) at the time the requests are performed.

For example, the processor 102 can prompt the patient 12 with a request 240 a to take a bG level (biomarker) measurement at performance time 238 a. The resulting measurement when received by the processor 102, such as automatically from the measurement engine 138 after reading the test strip (bio sensor) 140 for the desired biomarker, is then recorded automatically by the processor 102 in the date file 145 as a corresponding data value 256 a for the associated event 237 a. For actions 240 d and 240 e, at a required time, the processor 102 can automatically prompt the patient 12 to take the prescribed action at the required time, and again automatically prompt the patient thereafter to confirm that the required action has been taken, or that a predefine status has been achieved. A date-time stamp 169 can also be provided in the date record 152 automatically by the processor 102 upon triggering of the requests 240 a-k, acknowledgement of the requests 240 a-k, upon completion of the event 237 a-k, upon receiving a data value 256 a-k for the event 237 a-k, and combinations thereof. Additionally, in another embodiment, the patient 12 can record data values 256 a-k for one or more events 237 a-k by entering the data directly into the device 24 via the user interface 146, wherein the processor 102 stored the entered data values/information in the associated data record 152 for the event 237 a-k, or in other embodiments can record a voice message with the information for later transcription into digital data. In still other embodiments, the patient 12 can be guided by the collection device 24 to record data for an event 237 a-k using a paper tool 38.

As mentioned previously above, each event 237 can be a recording of a biomarker value, or a request for a required patient action that is necessary in order to create a context for the biomarker value, such as for example, meals, exercise, therapeutic administration, and the like. In the illustrated embodiment, the context 252 for completing events 237 a-c is to establish a pre-prandial baseline and a no-trend condition, and for events 2377 f-k to establish a post-prandial excursion and tail. Such context 252 for these events may also be associated with the corresponding data records 152 for each event as contextual information 156 (FIG. 4). Such information is useful later when reconstructing the data and/or when there is a desire to know the context for which the data record was created.

It is to be appreciated that any patient action taken outside of the required requests for patient actions 240 a-k can also be recorded by the processor 102 but will not be considered by the processor 102 as part of the collection procedure 70 b. Data 256 a-k for events 237 a-k that are prospective can be identified based on a type of event, the time of the event, the trigger of the event, and combination thereof. Each of the performance times 238 a-k can be fixed or variable based on prior data. Some of the event 237 a-k in other embodiments can also be a past, current, or a future event such as for meals, exercise, and the like, or data values such as for hypoglycemic events, hyperglycemic events, or data of a specific value of interest. In some embodiments, the events 237 a-k can be identified via a paper tool 38 that is procedure based.

As also shown, the structured collection procedure 70 b will end if the condition of the exit criteria 228 is satisfied. In this example, the exit criteria 228 is satisfied if at least three of the actions 2407 f-k met the adherence criteria 224. For example, the processor 102 may provide a unique identifier (e.g. one or more numbers, letters, and/or characters which will only appear once in the data file to identity data associated therewith, e.g., an incremental count, pointer, etc.) 167 (FIG. 4) in the data file 145 for each event 237 a-k performed and to which satisfied the adherence criteria 224 if required. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 4, events 237 a-c and 237 e-k each receive a unique identifier but not event 237 d, e.g., <null>, since not satisfying an associated adherence criteria (not shown). In addition, analysis logic 258 and resulting recommendations 260 can also be provided in the structured collection procedure 70 b which the processor 102 may apply automatically to the data collected upon satisfying the exit criteria 228 in one embodiment.

Similar features are also provided in the examples illustrated by FIGS. 6C and 6D, wherein FIG. 6C depicts a structured collection procedure 70 c which has a defined medical use case parameter 220 indicating that the procedure is helpful for determining suitability of a bolus in regards to a meal start. Likewise, FIG. 6D depicts a structured collection procedure 70 d which has a defined medical use case parameter 220 indicating that the procedure is helpful for determining suitability of an exercise equivalent to a carbohydrate intake. In addition to the above examples, other such structured collection procedures may be designed to address other various medical use cases such as, for example, the following: determining the effects of eating a particular food on a biomarker level of a patient; determining the best time to take medication before and/or after a meal; and determining the affect of a particular drug on a biomarker level of a patient. Still other structured collection procedures can be provided which may be useful in addressing questions concerning how best to initialize therapy for a patient, finding a determination of status of a patient disease progression, finding the best ways to optimize a patient therapy, and the like. For example, the clinician 14 can define and/or use a pre-defined structured collection procedure 70 which looks at factors which may have an effect on the therapy of the patient. Such factors can include, for example, stress, menstrual cycle, pre-dawn effect, background insulin, exercise, bolus timing with respect to a meal, basal rate, insulin sensitivity, post-prandial behavior, and the like.

FIG. 6E shows a diagram structured collection procedure 70 comprising one or more multiple sampling groupings 262 each comprising a recurring schedule of events 222 provided between the entry criteria 226 and the exit criteria 228. In this example, the schedule of events 222 comprises one or more events 237 occurring each day at consistent times of day. As the structured collection procedure 70 in the process of obtaining contextualized biomarker data from a diabetic patient 12 can span over multiple days, even week and/or months before the exit criteria 228 is met, one or more checks 264, such as for parameter adjustment, and/or evaluation of whether to re-run the sampling groupings 262, can also be provided between the entry and exit criteria 226, 228 in one embodiment. The duration between such checks 264 can be used for physiological system equilibration, evaluation of treatment efficacy, or convenience. For example, either between each sample grouping 262 or after a predefined number such sampling grouping 262 (as shown), an analysis for the check 264 can be performed by the processor 102 to determine whether an adjustment to any parameter in the collection procedure 70 is needed.

For example, such analysis may be either for a parameter optimization or efficacy assessment. For the parameter optimization, the processor 102 can run calculations on the samples provided within a previous schedule of events 222 or sample grouping 262, using information from prior optimizations, clinician set parameters, and a collection or therapy strategy, recommends a new parameter value. For the efficacy assessment, the processor 102 can evaluate data not utilized by the optimization analysis. Additionally, it is to be appreciated that after a group of samples, i.e., sampling group 262, are taken the processor 102 can also evaluate the data from the sampling group 262, such as if such data is need in order to alter/optimize a person's therapy. Adherence criteria 224 can be applied to the perform this evaluation to the data of the sampling group 262. For example, a first adherence criteria 224 can be used by the processor 102 to assess whether a minimum amount of data is provided by the sampling group 262 and if not, for example, the alteration/optimization of the patient's therapy will not take place. Another adherence criteria 224 could permit the processor 102 assess whether the data is acceptable to permit an adjustment called for by the check 264, such as looking at spread of the data, whether these is too much variability (noise), as well as other data attributes to use the data. In this example, if meeting such adherence criteria, then processor 102 has assessed that there is minimum risk that adjusting a parameter of the procedure could readily result in a severe event, e.g., hyper- or hypoglycemic event. Lastly, an adherence criteria can be used by the processor to assess the exit criteria 228 based on the data of sampling group, for example, the exit criteria is met when the data from the sampling group 262 satisfies the adherence criteria, such as for example, discussed above, for the sampling group.

It is to be appreciated that collection or therapy strategies can be categorized into scale based (sliding or fixed) assessments or formula based assessments. As input to the collection or therapy strategy, the processor 102 in one embodiment can utilize the data collected from a predetermined number of prior sample grouping(s) 262. This data can be either used as individual points (only the formula based collection or therapy strategies), or combined with filtering for use in a scale based assessment. In another embodiment, for example, the result of a check 264 performed by the processor 102 can also result in a status or recommendation being provided by the processor 102 automatically. Such status or recommendation may be e.g., a status of continuing with current parameter values, a recommendation to change particular parameters, a recommendation to change the adherence and/or exit criteria, a status that the processor 102 switched to a secondary adherence and/or exit criteria based on the analysis performed on the data from a prior schedule of events or prior sample grouping, or a recommendation to terminate the collection procedure, and the likes. A discussion of performing a structured testing method using a structured collection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided hereafter with reference made to FIG. 7A.

Structured Testing Method

FIG. 7A depicts a structured testing method 300 for diagnostic or therapy support of a patient with a chronic disease. The method 300 may be implemented as instruction codes of a program running on a computer with a processor and memory, such as preferably clinician computers 25 (FIG. 2) as stand-alone software, as part of software 34, or as software provided as a service by server 52 via a secure web implementation over public network 50. Upon a processor 76 executing the program from memory 78 of the clinician computer 25, as one function among others, the processor 76 after receiving a query for a medical use case and/or question, searches memory 78, computer readable medium 40, and/or server 52 for all structured collection procedures 70 a-d, which matches the submitted query in step 302. For example, the processor 76 may read the medical use case parameter 220 of each available structured collection procedures 70 a-d and using a conventional search algorithm (e.g., list, tree, heuristics, etc.), provide on a display 82 a selection choice for those structured collection procedure matching the query in step 304 in one embodiment.

In one embodiment, the list displayed can reflect, for example, the structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d available for use from the server 52. In still another embodiment, the list of selection choices displayed can be dynamically created based on a type of medical use case the clinician 14 wishes to investigate. For example, prior to step 302, a list of selectable medical use cases can be displayed on the display 82 by the processor 76. In such an embodiment, the clinician 14, using the user interface device(s) 86 may selected from among the displayed medical use cases, for example, the medical use case “Determining meal effect on patient's therapy.” After the clinician makes such a selection, which the processor 76 receives as input from the user interface device(s) 86, the processor 76 after using decision logic (e.g., if . . . then) provided by the software 34 would then display in step 304, for example, structured collection procedure 70 b (e.g., a structured collection procedure to determine a more accurate insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio) and 70 c (e.g., a structured collection procedure to determine bolus timing in regards to meal start), and not structured collection procedures 70 a and 70 d, which are structured collection procedures unrelated to the medical use case. Likewise, a “show all structured collection procedures” could also be a choice among the displayed medical use cases, in which the complete list of available structured collection procedures would then be displayed in step 304. In another embodiment, step 302 may be skipped and the processor 76 in step 304 can just provide a display of the structured collection procedures 70 a-d available in memory 78 of the clinician computer 25.

In step 306, a clinician using the user interface devices 86 can select a structured collection procedure 70 on the computer 25 for diagnostic or therapy support. For example, the selecting process can include choosing from the list displayed in step 304, which provided one or more structured collection procedures. After the clinician makes such a selection in step 306, which the processor 76 receives as input from the user interface device(s) 62, the processor 76 of the computer 25 retrieves automatically from an electronic component, e.g., computer memory 78, server 52, or computer readable medium 40, and displays the selected structured collection procedure 70 on display 82 for viewing.

It is to be appreciated that each structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d is based on a medical use case and has parameters defining entry criteria 226, a schedule of events 222, adherence criteria 224, and exit criteria 228. As mentioned above, the entry criteria 226 establish the conditions needed to be met prior to obtaining biomarker data from the patient. Each event 237 of the schedule of events 222 comprises a performance time, patient guidance to perform the event, patient actions, a request for information from the patient, a request for collection of at least one type of biomarker data from the patient, and combinations thereof. The adherence criteria 224 is used to qualitatively assess whether an event 237 performed according to the schedule of events 222 provided data which is acceptable to addressing the medical use case upon which the structured collection procedure 70 is based. Additionally, as mentioned above, the exit criteria 228 establish the conditions needed to be met prior to exiting the structured collection procedure 70.

In step 310, after the processor 76 displays the selected structured collection procedure 70, the clinician 14, to meet the needs of the patient 12 and/or interests of the clinician, may adjust any one of the parameters 222, 224, 226, and 228 which are also displayed on the display 82. Safe guards may be implemented to ensure that only the clinician 14 can modify such parameters and/or run the software 34, such as via password protection. The processor 76 receives any such changes to the parameters 222, 224, 226, and 228 as input via user interface devices 86 and saves the revised structured collection procedure 70 in memory 78. Next, in step 312, the selected structured collection procedure 70 is prescribed on the computer 25 to the patient 12 by the clinician 14, wherein the processor 76 of the computer 25 provides as output the selected structured collection procedure 70 to the patient 12 to perform. For example, in step 314, the prescribed structured collection procedure 70 is implemented electronically on a processor based device, such as collection device 24, or any of the other above described devices 18, 28, and 36 (FIG. 1), as part of the software 34 or in other embodiment, portions thereof as part of paper tool 38.

In one embodiment, the prescribed structured collection procedure 70 may be implemented from the clinician computer 25 (FIG. 2) to the collection device 24 via communication link 72, via the public network 50 through a webpage and/or made available for downloading on server 52. In still other embodiments, the prescribed structured collection procedure 70 can be provided through the computer readable medium 40 and loaded by one of the devices 18, 24, 28, and 36, downloaded from another one of the devices 18, 24, 25, 26, 28, and 36, or downloaded via cell phone or telephone connection from server 52. Notice that a new/updated/prescribed structured collection procedure 70 available for use on the devices 18, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 36 may be provided in any standard fashion, such for via postal letters/cards, email, text messaging, tweets, and the likes.

Customizing a Structured Collection Procedure

FIG. 7B conceptually illustrates one example of a pre-defined structured collection procedure 70, which has a defined medical use case parameter 220 indicating that the procedure is helpful for medical use cases or questions which need to know the trends in blood glucose (bG) levels of a patient and/or the relationships between blood glucose values and time of day, meal size, and energy level. As mentioned above previously, the use case parameter 220 can be used as an identity tag in which the processor 102 may locate the associated structured collection procedure 70 in response to a search query, such as, for entered use case or question. For example, the search query can be entered into the collection device 24 via the user interface 146 and/or received from the clinician computer 25. Such a search query may result from a desire to know which uses case can be addressed by the structured collection procedures 70 currently available on the collection device 24, or to know which structured collection procedure 70 would be useful to address a particular use case or question. Therefore, the use case parameter 220 in one embodiment permits a structured collection procedure 70 to be automatically chosen by the processor 102 from a plurality of structured collection procedures 70 a-d, such as provided in memory 110, memory 78, computer readable medium 40, and/or server 52 based on a selection, such as from a displayed list on the display 108 provided by the processor 102, or from input received by the processor 102 from the user interface of a defined medical question. In other embodiments, the use case parameter 220 may also indicate the structured collection procedure 70 is also useful for showing relationships between bG level values and time of day, meal size, and/or energy level.

In one embodiment, the pre-defined parameters of the structured collection procedure 70 can be displayed for modification/customization by the processor 102 of the collection device 24 on the display 108 and/or by the processor 76 of the clinician computer 25 on the display 82 by an authorized user. Such an authorized user may be identified, for example, on the collection device 24 and/or the clinician computer 25 by a password entered via the user interface 146, 86, respectively. In such an embodiment, the pre-define parameters of structured collection procedure 70 can be displayed on the display 108, 82 in which customizable parameters can provide editable or selectable variables via drop-down boxes with various selection choices, radio buttons, check boxes, formatted fields requesting a specific type of information (mm-dd-yyyy, number, letter, etc.), text boxes to enter messages to be displayed, and the likes. The structured collection procedure 70 can be displayed for editing in tabular format (as illustrated) in one embodiment or in a sequential manner listing one parameter at a time in a scroll-through fashion in another embodiment. In still another embodiment, structured collection procedures can be provided which cannot be modified.

As shown by FIG. 7B, the structured collection procedure 70 may further comprise parameters defining one or more criteria setting the conditions needing to be met by the patient 12 to start of the structured collection procedure, i.e., entry criteria 226, to end the structured collection procedure i.e., exit criteria 228, and combinations thereof. In one embodiment, the processor 102 of the collection device 24 uses the one or more criteria to automatically start, evaluate, and end the structured collection procedure 70 if the condition(s) defined by the structured collection procedure are met. In still another embodiment, adherence criteria 224, which are the conditions needing to be met in order for the collected datum/data to be accepted, can also be provided in the structured collection procedure 70.

As also shown in FIG. 7B, the structured collection procedure 70 further comprise parameters defining one or more (collection) events 237 which together form the schedule of events 222. Each of the events 237 comprises one or more requests 240, e.g., for a measurement from the measurement engine 138 of a biomarker value for a sample provided to the biosensor 140, and/or for information to be entered by the patient via the user interface 146 such as in response to a question presented by the processor 102 on the display 108. In the illustrated embodiment, the requests 240 are for a bG measurement, a meal size indication (S, M, or L), and an energy level indication (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), in which 1 is lowest and 5 is highest. Other such requests 240 can include indicating whether the patient exercised, indicating a particular food that was consumed, indicating which medicine was administered, indicating dosage of the medicine administered, and the like may also be provided in other structured collection procedures 70. In the illustrated embodiment, the collection events can be customized by selecting which request 240 the processor 102 should perform via a yes/no selection box.

The structured collection procedure 70 may also include guidance 230 and timing or performance time 238 associated with each of the collection events 237 as well as with each of the entry, exit, and adherence criteria 226, 228, and 224. Such guidance 230 is provided by the processor 102 to the display 108 upon the occurrence of the associated collection event 237 or other parameters. For example, a collection event 237 for a bG measurement before breakfast may also have a request 240 for an indication of the energy level of the patient. Therefore, in this example, the associated guidance 230 which states, “Please indicate energy level” is provided on the display 108 by the processor 102. It is to be appreciated that the guidance 230 is a text box, field, area, which enables for information to be provided to the patient to help the patient in performance of the structured collection procedure 70. In this example, selection of a number from 1 to 5 may be made via press of one of the buttons 147, 149 or via the touch screen interface if provided by display 108 as a data entry for such a request 237, which is then stored by the processor 102 in memory 110 of the collection device 24 as part of a data file 145 (FIG. 4) for the structured collection procedure 70.

The timing parameter 238 of the structured collection procedure 70 is used to specify for any one of the associated collection event 237, the entry, exit, and adherence criteria 226, 228, 224, either a specific date and/or time (mm-dd-yyyy, hh:mm), or a period (n) after a preceding collection event in which to perform the associated collection event. The periods n₁, n₂, n₃ in the illustrated embodiment for the respective collection events 237 indicate hours, but in other embodiments can be indicated in minutes or seconds. In another embodiment, the timing or performance time parameter 238 for an associated collection event 237 and for the entry, exit, and adherence criteria 226, 228, 224 can be modified by another collection event and/or by the criteria.

For example, in the illustrate embodiment, the entry criteria 226 is modified by the adherence criteria 224 by adding a day if the guidance 230 provided in the form of a question “Are you willing to conduct a test over 3 consecutive days?” is not affirmed by the patient 12 e.g., via a “No” selection provided on the collection device 24. In this illustrated example, the “Affirms guidance” may be a drop down selection provided in a combo box for customizing the adherence criteria 224 of the associated collection event 237, which when selected causes the processor 102 to wait for the accepted/not accepted input (e.g., via buttons 147, 149) before executing the remaining logic (“if not add 1 day to timing”) of the adherence criteria 224. Still further in this example, the processor 102 in accordance with the logic provided in the adherence criteria 224 associated with the exit criteria 228, can set the timing or performance time parameter 238 of the exit criteria 228 to the date (mm-dd-yyyy) that is 3 days after completing the entry criteria 226. It is to be appreciated that the various possible combinations of logic statements which may be performed by the structured collection procedure 70 can be pre-defined and selected by a drop down box in order to be customized in one embodiment, and/or logic statements can be built in another embodiment.

The structured collection procedure 70 can also includes an options parameter 232 associated with each of the collection events 237 as well as with each of the entry, exit, and adherence criteria 226, 228, 224. The options parameter 232 can have a customizable value(s) to govern whether the data and/or results of the associated collection event 237 or any of the other parameters e.g., entry, exit, and adherence criteria 226, 228, 224, in the structured collection procedure 70 meets a particular condition such that still further processing may be carried out by the processor 102 if such a condition(s) is meet. For example, such options can be to have the processor 102 automatically send a message to the physician indicating that the patient has started the structured collection procedure 70 via satisfying the entry criteria 226, or to provide a message to the patient and/or the physician if the patient fails a collection event 237 by not satisfying an adherence criteria, or to provide a message to the physician when the patient completes the structured collection procedure 70 when the exit criteria 228 is satisfied, or combinations thereof. For example, such an options parameter 232 can have a global list of such actions which is selected on the display 108, for example, by a selected value from a range of values associated with each option. For example, the options for each parameter can be customized via selecting from a drop down box having option choices (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . , A, B, C, etc.) and in which, for example, Option 1 of having the processor 102 provide a message to the physician if the patient fails a collection event 237 (e.g., by not satisfying an adherence criteria), is shown selected for the before breakfast collection event 237. An example in the context of patient 12 being diabetic is provided hereafter to illustrate further such features provided on a collection device 24 according to the present invention.

A typical patient with Type 2 diabetes may measure his/her blood glucose once per day after waking up in the morning. At a routine office visit, the patient's HbA1C result is found to be elevated. The physician recommends that the person goes through three days of intensified glucose monitoring, and selects the structured collection procedure which is useful for this purpose. The structured collection procedure 70 is then customized as discussed above such that during these three days collection events 237 are defined with a number bG measurement requests 240 such that the patient can be requested by the processor 102 to measure his/her blood glucose before and two hours (e.g., n₁=2) after breakfast, before and two hours (n₂=2) after lunch, before and two hours (n₃=2) after supper, and at bedtime. Additionally, the patient 12 can be requested via other associated requests 240 for each collection event 237 to provide an assessment of the relative size of the ingested meals at the appropriate times as well as an indication how he/she feels with regard to energy level. In the illustrate embodiment of FIG. 7B, the processor 102 can request the indication of energy level with each collection event 237 and the assessment of the relative size of the ingested meals every other collection event 237 (i.e., after the meal). Furthermore, the physician has provided a condition via adherence criteria 224 of having to perform the meal assessment within ±30 minutes of period (n) of the associated collection event 237 in order for such information to be useful in the assessment. Such information is useful to contextualize the collected data and for the analysis performed on the collected data.

Additionally, the physician would like to be notified when the patient has failed to complete the “before breakfast” collection event 237. Therefore, to facilitate the notification option, the physician customizes the structured collection procedure 70 by set the options parameter 232 associated with the “before breakfast” collection event, via a drop down box to “Send a message to the physician if adherence criteria fails.” All other collection events 237 have their associated options parameter 232 default to indicate that the processor 102 is not to take any additional action with regards to the options parameter. It is to be appreciated that the above described features and arrangements illustrated embodiment of FIG. 7B, provides a simply and convenient interface and method for customizing a structured collection procedure, such as for parameter adjustments carried out in step 310 of method 300 previously discussed above in reference to FIG. 7A.

Implementing and Performing a Structured Collection Procedure

FIG. 8A shows a flowchart of the method for implementing and performing a structured collection procedure 70 to obtain contextualized biomarker data from a patient 12 according to an embodiment of the invention. It is to be appreciated that a number of structured collection procedures 70 a-d (FIG. 2) prescribed in step 312 and implement in step 314 (FIG. 7A) may be stored in memory 110 (FIG. 3) of the device 24 and selected for execution at any desired time. For example, upon pressing a certain combination of the buttons 147, 149, the patient can select a desired structured collection procedures 70 a-c and the date when to start a structured collection i.e., a set mode function. For example, a date range to choose from may be to begin the testing tomorrow and end at today +90 days, which the processor 102 can also recorded in the data file 145 (FIG. 4) as part of the setup data 163. In such an implementation, the processor 102 as instructed by the software 34 reads the setup data 163 for the selected structured collection procedure 70 and indicates on the display 108 that the device 24 is in a structured testing mode, for example, from one day before the chosen testing start date until the end of the structured collection procedure.

It should be appreciated that multiple structured collection procedures 70 a-d can be executed sequentially or simultaneously at any given time. However, in one embodiment, the software 34 permits the user only to schedule another structured collection procedure 70 if the start date is later than the end date of the current structured collection procedure 70 being executed. The software 34 also permits the user to override a scheduled date for a structured collection procedure 70. If a structured collection procedure 70 is scheduled and the user enters the set mode function again, the software 34 causes the processor 102 to display the scheduled date on the display 108 as the default date; if the user exits the set mode without modifying the date, the previously scheduled date stays active. If a structured collection procedure 70 has started, the software 34 permits the user to enter the set mode and cause the processor 102 to cancel the current structured collection procedure 70. Upon cancellation, in one embodiment, the software 34 causes the processor 102 to de-tag (e.g., null the unique identifiers 167) the data records 152 in the data file 145 for the data collected for the cancelled structured collection procedure 70.

Upon reaching the procedure start in step 316 (FIG. 8a ), the processor 102 evaluates the whether entry criteria 226 is met in step 318 to begin the structured collection procedure 70 selected to obtain biomarker data to address a predefined use case or question (e.g., use case parameter 220). In step 320, the processor 102 specifies requests 240 according to their associated timing 238 for each event 237 in the schedule of events 222 for the structured collection procedure 70. It is to be appreciated that the schedule of events 222 provides a sampling plan for biomarker data collection that is performed by the processor 102 to obtain biomarker data in a predefined context. In performing the schedule of events 222 in step 320, the software 34 causes the processor 102 to assign a unique identifier (e.g. incremental count) 167 in a date record 152 which corresponds to each event 237 in the structured collection procedure 70. Optionally, each criteria 226, 228, 224 may also be provide with a date time stamp 169 to indicate when such criteria was satisfied, if desired.

Adherence criteria 224 is then applied to the input received (e.g., biomarker data or information) in response to an request 240 to determine whether the input received meets the adherence criteria 224. When a structured collection procedure 70 has started, all data collected according to requests 240 in the structured collection procedure 70 and which satisfy the adherence criteria 224, if required in step 322, are then assigned (tagged) in the data file 145 by the processor 102 with the unique identifier 167 in step 324. It is to be appreciated that the unique identifier also serves to associates the collected data e.g., data values 256 with their event 237, the request 240, and a date-time stamp 169 to indicate when the collection in response to the request 240 was received by the processor 102. While a structured collection procedure 70 is being executed, in one embodiment the software 34 permits the user to perform a measurement on the device 24 at any time without interfering with the episode.

In one embodiment, the software 34 permits reminders for biomarker measurements to be ‘snoozed’ as mentioned above for a period, such as for example, 15 minutes and up to a number of times, for non-critical measurements. In another embodiment, biomarker measurements or data entries that are performed close enough in time to a request 240 in step 320 are designed as valid measurements or data entry for the request 240 by the software 34. As such, the processor 102 will tag the associated data record 152 for the event 237 with the unique identifier 167 for such a biomarker measurement or data entry accordingly. In the case of biomarker measurements, if the measurement is accepted as valid for the request 240, the software 34 causes the processor 102 to prompt the user to input additional information if needed by the structured collection procedure 70 to provide context 252 for data resulting from the request 240. Such additional input, may include, for example, a rating of energy level from 1 to 5, where 1 is low and 5 is high; meal size from 1 to 5 where 1 is small and 5 is large, and exercises from yes or 1 to mean over 30 minutes, and no or 2 to mean less than 30 minutes. Such additional information or contextual information 156 when inputted via the user interface 146 is stored by the processor 102 in the data file 145 associated with the unique identifier 167 for the data event request 240 requiring the additional information also in step 324.

In one embodiment, biomarker measurements determined by the processor 102 as not being close enough in time to the data event request 240 defined by the structured collection procedure 70 will not be tagged with a unique identifier 167 in the data file 145 by the processor 102. Such is illustrated in the shown data file 145 with request 240 d and data values 256 d not being associated with a unique identifier 167 e.g., <null>. An example of a definition of ‘close enough in time to the collection procedure’ as instructed by the structured collection procedure 70 and/or software 34 to cause the processor 102 to make such a determination may be defined as being relative to a prescheduled time or a snoozed time. For example, for pre-prandial measurements up to 15 minutes in anticipation is acceptable; for post-prandial measurements, up to 10 minutes in anticipation is acceptable; and for bedtime measurements, up to 15 minutes in anticipation is acceptable. Other definitions may be provided in other structured collection procedures 70 and/or software 34.

In step 326, the processor 102 then evaluates whether the exit criteria 228 for the selected structured collection procedure 70 is satisfied. If not, then the processor 102 continues with performance the schedule of events 222 until the exit criteria 228 is satisfied. Upon satisfying the exit criteria 228, the collection procedure 70 ends in step 328. In one embodiment, the structured collection procedure 70 may also end if in step 318, the entry criteria 226 is also not met.

In some embodiments, the structured collection procedure 70 can be configured for performance as a paper tool 38; diabetes software 34 integrated into a collection device 24 such as a blood glucose meter 26; diabetes software 34 integrated into the computing device 36, such as a personal digital assistant, handheld computer, or mobile phone; diabetes software 34 integrated into a device reader 22 coupled to a computer; diabetes software 34 operating on a computer 18, 25 such as a personal computer; and diabetes software 34 accessed remotely through the internet, such as from a server 52. When diabetes software 34 is integrated into a collection device 24 or a computing device 36, the diabetes software 34 can prompt the patient to record diary information such as meal characteristics, exercise, and energy levels. The diabetes software 34 can also prompt the patient to obtain biomarker values such a blood glucose values.

GUI Interface Providing a Selectable Structured Collection Procedure

FIG. 8B shows a method of implementing the structured collection procedure via a graphical user interface provided on a collection device 24, which when executed on the collection device, cause the processor 102 to perform the following steps. Upon pressing a certain combination of the buttons 147, 149, the patient 12 can scroll to the structured collection procedure 70 available for selection in a list 329 provided by the processor 102 on the display 108 of the collection device 24 in step 330. If desiring to start the structured collection procedure, the patient 12, for example, selects via pressing an OK button 151 in step 332, the desired structured collection procedure 70. In this example, the entry criteria 226 (FIG. 6) of the structured collection procedure 70 provides information in step 334 which the processor 102 displays to the user on the display 108. After reading the displayed information, the user presses any button in step 336 in which the next procedure in the entry criteria 226 is performed by the processor 102. In this illustrated example, as part of the entry criteria 226, a question is then asked in step 338 by the processor 102. If the patient 12 is still desirous of starting the structured collection procedure, the patient 12 selects the OK button 151 in step 340; otherwise, any other press via button 147, 149 will cause the processor to go back to the list 329, thereby stopping the set-up procedure for the structured collection procedure 70.

After the patient 12 presses the OK button 151, the processor 102 in step 342 will provide on the display 108 an alarm clock 343 for setting the time to begin the selected structured collection procedure 70. It is to be appreciated that all the required events 237 for biomarker sampling, patient information, etc., is automatically schedule by the processor 102 in accordance with the schedule of events 222 for the structured collection procedure 70 in which timing, values, questions, etc., therein may have been adjusted by the clinician 14 as discussed previously above in reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B. Therefore, other than entering the start time as permitted by the entry criteria 226, no other parameter adjustments in the structured collection procedure 70 is required by the patient 12 (or permitted in one embodiment).

In the illustrated embodiment, the patient in step 344 can adjust the start time of the structured collection procedure for the next day, e.g., Day 1, via buttons 147, 149. Upon confirming the start time in step 346 via pressing the OK button 151, the start time is recorded in memory 110 as part of the setup data 163 in the data file 145 (FIG. 4) for the structured collection procedure 70 by the processor 102. The processor 102 then displays the selection list 329 on the display 108 in step 348, thereby completing the set-up procedure, which satisfies the entry criteria 226, and indicates on the display 108 that the collection device 24 is in a structured testing mode 349.

It should be appreciated that in on embodiment multiple structured collection procedures can be executed sequentially or simultaneously at any given time, and hence in one embodiment the mode 349 provided on the display 108 will indicated which structured testing is being performed. However, in one preferred embodiment, the software 34 does not permits the user to schedule another structured collection procedure, unless the start date is later than the end date of the current structured collection procedure being executed via the user interface 146. It is to be appreciated that processor 102 may re-schedule the following structured collection procedures automatically if the current structured collection procedure is still running due to the exit criteria 228 not being met. The software 34 in another embodiment may also permit the user to override a scheduled date for a structured collection procedure. If a structured collection procedure is scheduled and the user enters the set mode function again, the software 34 causes the processor 102 to display the scheduled date on the display 108 as the default date; if the user exits the set mode without modifying the date, the previously scheduled date stays active. If a structured collection procedure has started, the software 34 permits the user to enter the set mode and cause the processor 102 to cancel the current structured collection procedure, if desired.

In step 350, an alarm condition 351 can be provided by the processor 102 the next day (as indicated by the symbol Day1) as was set in the above-mentioned procedure the previous day (as indicted by the symbol Start Up). Upon the user selecting any button 147, 149, 151 in step 352, the processor 102 as instructed by schedule of events 222, provides a first scheduled event 237 which is information 353 to be displayed on display 108 in step 354, which the patient 12 acknowledges with any button 147, 149, 151 being pressed in step 356. Next in step 358, the processor 102 is instructed by the schedule of events 222 to execute a second scheduled event, which is to display on the display 108 a question 359 for the patient, which the patient 12 acknowledges with any button 147, 149, 151 pressed in step 360. In the illustrated embodiment, the patient in step 362 indicates the start time of breakfast in minutes from the wake up alarm 351 previously acknowledged in step 352. Upon confirming the meal start time in step 364 to the processor 102, via pressing the OK button 151, the meal start time is recorded in memory 110. For example, the meal start time is recorded in the data file 144 in the associated data record 152 as data for the event 237 by the processor 102. Additionally, in step 366, the processor 102 displays to the patient 12 the information regarding the timing for the next schedule event as a reminder. In step 368, upon reaching the next scheduled event indicted by the schedule of events 222, the processor 102 provides a request 240 on the display 108 for the patient to take a measurement, e.g., a blood glucose measurement. Additionally, in step 370, the processor 102 also makes a request 240 for information on the size of the meal that is to be ingested as required by the schedule of events 222 in order to provide contextual information 156 to the measurement value.

As mentioned above previously, for each event the software 34 causes the processor 102 to assign a unique identifier (e.g. incremental count) 167 (FIG. 4) to the data of each request 240 provided in the schedule of events 222 which meet the adherence criteria 224 in the associated date record 152 for the event 237. Therefore, while the structured collection procedure is being executed, the software 34 permits the user to perform a measurement on the collection device 24 at any time out side the schedule of events 222. Such a measurement since not being performed according to a request 240 will not be evaluated for the adherence criteria 224, and thus will not be provided with a unique identifier 167 in the date file but will only be provided with a date-time stamp and its measurement value. Such data is still recorded in the data file 145, as such data may still be useful for another analysis.

In another embodiment, the software 34 also permits reminders for biomarker measurements, such as provided in step 238. For example, in one embodiment, the processor 102 provides an alarm and/or alert message for a reminder via the indicator 148 and/or on the display 108, respectively, to provide a measurement. For example, at the time 238 of a particular request 240 for taking a biomarker measurement (or reading), the processor 102 prompts the patient 12 by al least displaying on the display the message, “It is now time for your reading.” An audible alarm and/or tactile alarm (vibrations) can be provided by the processor 102 via indicator 148 in another embodiment. For example, in one embodiment, the collection device 24 will provide such a prompt even when already powered on, such as by the patient 12 for another reason, e.g., to conduct a non-scheduled event, when in, for example, a window of time in which to take the requested measurement/reading, or even when powered downed, such as in a standby mode, by waking up to provide the reminder via the prompt. In another embodiment, the provided reminder or prompt can be ‘snoozed’ for a pre-defined period as mentioned above, that still falls within the window of time in which to take the requested (critical) measurement/reading such as for example, 15 minutes or any other such suitable time that falls in the window of time. It is to be appreciated that the snooze feature for a measurement/reading that is considered critical to the structured collection procedure 70, e.g., a measurement/reading needed for helping to address the medical use case or question, needed to meet adherence criteria 224, and/or needed in subsequent analysis for some determination, etc., the snooze feature will not extend the request 240 beyond the window of time provided by the collection procedure 70 via, e.g., adherence criteria 224 for the request 240. For example, in one embodiment one or more events 237 in the schedule of events 222 can be pre-defined as critical via use of the options parameter 232 (FIG. 7B) provided in the structured collection procedure 70. For example, an event 237 which is designated as critical is one that cannot be missed, but if missed can be replaced by another sample already in the date file 145. In still another embodiment, the snoozing can be up to a number of times, for non-critical measurements. For example, certain events 237 in the structured collection procedure 70 could be designated as having a non-critical request 240, which can be snoozed, such as via selecting such an option that is provided as one of the options parameter 232 (FIG. 7B). The options parameter 232 in this embodiment could for example provide the snooze option as well as a selectable time interval (e.g., 1-60 minutes, etc.) and a selectable number of times (e.g., 1-5, etc.) that the user is permitted to snooze the request 240. In still another embodiment, the collection device 24 permits for an alarm shut off i.e., the indicator 148 if providing the reminder (audible, vibratory) can be shut off for the entire window of time via the user interface 146, but wherein processor 102 still accepts the measurement/reading as long as it is made in the window of time. In still another embodiment, the collection device 24 provides a skip reading option also received by the processor 102 via a selection entered using the user interface 146, e.g., from a list of selectable options, such as for example, snooze, alarm shut off, skip reading, provided on the display 108, in which again no reminder/prompt will be provided as patient 12 has indicated to the processor 102 that he/she does not want to take that particular requested measurement/reading. It is to be appreciated that selecting the skip reading selection option can result in an adherence event 242 resulting in further processing, such as discussed previously above in early sections, if adherence criteria 224 had been associated with the event 237 prompting the request 240.

In still another embodiment, the adherence criteria 224 can require biomarker measurements to be performed close enough in time to a data event request 240. Therefore, if such biomarker measurements are performed within the period specified by the adherence criteria 224, the processor 102 can indicate that the measurements or data entry for the event is acceptable and tags (i.e., assigns the unique identifier 167) the value of the biomarker measurement or data entry in the data file 145 accordingly. In the case of biomarker measurements, if the measurement is accepted as valid for the data event request 240 (i.e., meets the adherence criteria 224), the schedule of events 222 may cause the processor 102 to prompt the user to input additional information if needed by the structured collection procedure 70, such as mentioned above regarding step 370 to provide contextual information 156 (i.e., context) to the measurement received in response to a request 240.

Such contextual information 156 when inputted via the user interface 146 can be stored by the processor 102 in the data file 145 associated with the unique identifier 167 for the data event request 240 requiring the additional information. Biomarker measurements determined by the processor 102 as not being close enough in time to the data event request 240 as defined by the adherence criteria 224 will not be tagged in the data file 145 by the processor 102. Such is illustrated in the shown data file 145 (FIG. 4) with data event request 240 d and data values 256 d not being associated with a unique identifier 167. An example of a definition of ‘close enough in time to the collection procedure’ as instructed by the adherence criteria 224 to cause the processor 102 to make such a determination may be defined as being relative to a prescheduled time or a snoozed time. For example, for pre-prandial measurements up to 15 minutes in anticipation is acceptable; for post-prandial measurements, up to 10 minutes in anticipation is acceptable; and for bedtime measurements, up to 15 minutes in anticipation is acceptable. Other definitions may be provided in other adherence criteria 224 for other events in the schedule of events 222 as well as in other structured collection procedure.

In the illustrated embodiment, the user uses the buttons 147, 149 to scroll to a selection, which is entered by the processor in the data record 152 for the associated request 240 via pressing Okay button 151 in step 372. In one embodiment, the meal size can be indicated via a number range, such as for example, from 1 to 5, where 1 is small and 5 is large. In the illustrated embodiment, additional input for contextual information 156 regarding a rating of energy level from 1 to 5, where 1 is low and 5 is high is requested in step 374, which is entered in the data file 145 as mentioned previously above via the processor 102 receiving input for the request 240 by using the user interface 146 in step 376. In other embodiment, other contextual information 156 may include indicating whether the patient exercised and/or how long. For example, the user interface 146 may be use in which yes or 1 to mean over 30 minutes, and no or 2 to mean less than 30 minutes. In the illustrated embodiment, as the exit criteria 228 is now meet via successfully performing steps 368-376, the structured collection procedure 70 ends in step 378, wherein the processor 102 again displays the list 329, such that the patient 12 may perform other tasks on the collection device 24 if so desired. Reference is now made to FIG. 9 hereafter.

Method of Contextualizing Biomarker Data

FIG. 9 depicts a method 388 of contextualizing biomarker data for diabetes diagnostics and therapy support according to an embodiment of the invention. It is to be appreciated that in the previous embodiments discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B, the contextual information 156 was requested and recorded with the associated biomarker value by the processor automatically during the structured collection procedure 70. However, in embodiments where such automation is not provided on the collection device 24, and the patient is using a paper tool 38, the collection data can be later associated with its contextual information 156 after, for example, the structured collection procedure 70 is performed in step 390 to create at least data event values 256. If not already done by the collecting device 24, such as in the case of a device with limited memory and processing power or when recordings are made on paper tool 38, such data may be provided to another one of the devices 18, 25, 36 that is running the software 34 and has the ability to associate at least the data event values 256 (FIG. 4) with their respective data event requests 240. This associating of at least the data event values 256 with their respective data event request 240, the date-time stamp 169, and the contextual information 156 results in contextualized (self-monitoring) data 170 in step 392.

It is to be appreciated that data as used in structured testing according to the present invention deals with the prospective collection of contextualized data. Considering FIG. 10A, in this example, the inherent advantage of context becomes clear when one considers the utility of having a subway map on the left-hand side without context and one on the right-hand side with context, which makes it possible to easily navigate the system and travel from one place to another. In a similar manner, contextualization can play an important role in diabetes. Context associated with data, for example, can be due to therapy, an event (such as meals, exercise, an event 237, request 240, etc.), and time of request for data collection itself (e.g., timing 238). As such, any data collected by the patient with measured values can be contextualized by being associated with one or more the above mentioned factors e.g., therapy, events, and time, each of which are discussed further hereafter.

Therapy can be defined, for example, as an on-going treatment intended to alleviate the patient's impaired glucose control. This treatment generally involves anti-diabetic agents such as insulin, oral medications, and diet and exercise. A therapeutic (or a therapeutic combination) has a specific pharmacodynamic effect on a patient's glycemia owing to different mechanisms of action. A change in either the dose(s) of the therapeutic(s) or a change in the therapeutic(s) itself, will lead to a change in the patient's glucose control. Consequently, the collected bG data is strongly linked to underlying therapy and dose and this information is used to contextualize the data. A change in dose or therapeutic will lead to a different context. It is to be appreciated that the therapy context can be set by the clinician 14 in consultation with the patient at the time of designing the collection procedure 70, such as discussed previously above with regards to FIG. 5A.

In one embodiment, the events 237 in a collection procedure 70 can include specific conditions around bG measuring points that play a role in altering the patient's normal glucose levels. As mentioned previously above, events 237 can be meal or exercise based, and are pertinent for data contextualization. In this context, the underlying assumption is that the patient operates, more or less, under a well-defined schedule. At the time of creating the collection procedure 70, the patient 12 can discuss lifestyle events with the clinician 14 so that the collection procedure 70 can be tailored according to the needs of the patient 12. As an example and with reference to FIG. 10B, consider a typical collection procedure 70 whereby the patient 12 does not exercise regularly so that the majority of the events are meal based events that consist of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Such a lifestyle of the patient 12 leads to six candidate points for bG measurement (pre and post for each of the meals) for the schedule of events 222 in the collection procedure 70. During the process of creating/customizing (FIG. 5A and/or FIG. 7B) of the collection procedure 70, the clinician 14 may specify that the patient collect one or more or all of these points as per the schedule of events 222 of the collection procedure 70. Any data collected in addition to these points, i.e., outside the requirements of the collection procedure 70, can be classified as non-collection procedure readings by the processor 102. In a similar manner, for a Type 1 diabetic patient that exercises regularly, the clinician 14 can tailor/customize a collection procedure 70 to include additional measurements around the exercise event. The event information, in this example, is then used to contextualize the data in an appropriate manner depending on the event 237.

Time represents the actual time at which a measurement is made and is in absolute terms, e.g., date-time stamp 169 (FIG. 4). Additionally, time can also be represented in terms of deviations, i.e., offset from a particular event. As an example, a postprandial reading is taken at a specific time after a meal and this time may be different across different days. This scenario arises as the patient may not be able to take an event based reading t the same time every day. Consequently, there is a distribution of times at which the same measurement has been made at different days. The knowledge of this distribution can become useful for analysis of such timing as well as the parameter timing 238 in the collection procedure 70.

Additionally, with the contextualized data 170, the physiological state of the patient 12 at the time of the measurement can be described. The patient's physiological state can influence a biomarker value, so knowledge of the patient's physiological state aids in the understanding of a biomarker value. The biomarker data can be contextualized because the biomarker data is collected in the context of predetermined events such as last time of meal, meal type, meal distribution, exercise information, sleep quality, sleep duration, waking time, and stressors such as illness and the like. Time-resolved data permits interpreting the biomarker data in context with other information, such as compliance with a structured collection procedure 70 and patient lifestyle events.

Referring again to FIG. 9, the contextualized data 170 is evaluated using adherence criteria 224 to generate accepted contextualized data 395 that meets the adherence criteria 224 in step 394. As the adherence criteria 224 can provide a basis for comparison of a data event value 256 with a standard, so the data event value can be either accepted and used or rejected and not used, the adherence criteria 224 can be used to filter data in one embodiment. In another embodiment, step 394 may precede step 392.

FIG. 11, for example, shows a diagram of accepted contextualized data 395 intermingled with non-acceptable contextualized data 397. The diagram vertical axis shows biomarker values 256 including context 252 in the form of a biomarker setpoint, a biomarker upper limit, and a biomarker lower limit. The diagram horizontal axis shows performance times 238 of measurement requests 240 and a sleep period event 237 in which the actual sleep surpassed a recommended minimum amount of sleep as indicated by the dashed line. The accepted contextualized data 395 is that which met the adherence criteria 224. The non-acceptable contextualized biomarker data 397 are either not within the structured collection procedure 70 or did not meet adherence criteria 224. By excluding the non-acceptable contextualized biomarker data 397, the accepted contextualized biomarker data 395 can help improve decision-making. Statistical techniques can be used to view the accepted contextualized biomarker data 395 in a form that conveys additional information to a clinician 14. Examples of statistical techniques include regression methods, variance analysis, and the like. Hereafter further details about a preferred embodiment of the software 34 are provided.

Software

As mentioned above in previous sections, the software 34 can operate on the patient computer 18, the collection device 24, a handheld computing device 36, such as a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, and/or a mobile phone; and paper tools 38. The software 34 can be pre-loaded or provided either via a computer readable medium 40 or over the public network 50 and loaded for operation on the patient computer 18, the collection device 24, the clinician computer/office workstation 25, and the handheld computing device 36, if desired. In still other embodiments, the software 34 can also be integrated into the device reader 22 that is coupled to the computer (e.g., computers 18 or 25) for operation thereon, or accessed remotely through the public network 50, such as from a server 52. Additionally, one or more collection procedures 70 can be provided as part of the software 34, provided as updates to the software 34, or provide as individual files which can be operated on and used by the software 34.

In the embodiment discussed hereafter, the software 34 runs on the collection device 24 and provides three basic elements: one or more structured collection procedures 70, data file 145, and one or more scripts. As the features of the structured collection procedure 70 and data file 145 are the same as previously discussed above no further details is provided. The one or more scripts are small independent programs that reside on the collection device 24 and each can perform a specific set of tasks. Such scripts can include a protocol script 401, a parse script 403, and an analysis script 405 such as depicted by FIG. 12, each of which are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.

Protocol Script

The protocol script is a script that actually enables the execution of the collection procedure 70 by the processor 102 on the collection device 45. At the time of initiation of collection procedure 70, the protocol script in one embodiment causes the processor 102 to create a data structure that outlines the amount of data expected as outlined by the collection procedure 70. In another embodiment, the data structure can have a variable size, or be a fixed size but with a buffer e.g., an array in the data structure, should additional data be collected during the collection procedure 70. For example, such have buffer can account for situations when the structured collection procedure 70 can be extend, if desired, or needs to be extended due to not meeting a desired condition, e.g., a patient biomarker value has not reached a desired value, such as, for example, up to a maximum size of allocable memory for the data structure in memory 110 of the collection device 24. This data structure, such as data file 145, stores at a minimum the time of initiation of the collection procedure 70, actual measurement of biomarkers, such as data event value 256, and time of the measurements, such as date-time stamp 169, and optionally all other information used for additional contextualization, such as the contextual information 156, and request 240, such as meals, exercise, etc. As an alternative embodiment, one can also consider the data structure to be a calendar that is generated by the clinician 14 which can include details in terms of the day, and the time of day when a measurement needs to be made. This calendar feature also enables the patient to see readily when he has to make the next measurement. The protocol script also causes the processor 102 to perform all of the functions necessary for the processor 102 to execute the collection procedure 70. Once appropriate data is collected, e.g., a successful run of the collection procedure 70, the protocol script causes the processor 102 to mark the data structure with a completion flag 257 in one embodiment or provides it as state condition of the software 34 in another embodiment and passes control of the processor 102 as provided in the software 34 to the parse script. In the former embodiment, the completion flag 257 can also be used to provide information regarding the reason for ending/terminating, such as to identify the type of completion (end, logistical (timeout), adherence terminated, etc.). For the latter embodiment, as one or more procedures 70 may be loaded onto the collection device 24 at the factory as mentioned previously above, providing state conditions for each collection procedure 70 in the software 34 helps to support the requirement that the procedure only be available after authorization by the clinician 14. In one embodiment, such state conditions of each collection procedure 70 can be tracked by the software 34 and can include one or more of a ‘Dormant’ state, an ‘Authorized’ state, a ‘Pending’ state, an ‘Active’ state, and a ‘Completed’ state. The Dormant state is useful when the collection device 24 is shipped with one or more embedded collection procedures 70, but until authorized for use, such as described above previously, cannot be use (or seen) by the patient 12 on the collection device 24. In this case, the collection procedure 70 is said to be in a Dormant state. The Authorized state is when the collection procedure 70 becomes usable after the clinician 14 authorizes it for use on the collection device 24. During this state, the collection procedure 70 can be configured (e.g., by the clinician) and initiated for start as also configured, e.g., via selection by the clinician, the patient 12, or by a start date. The Pending state is when a start date is set, but prior to execution, e.g., in which the collection procedure 70 is waiting for some unknown time until the entry criteria 226 is met before executing the schedule of events 222. Once the collection procedure 70 begins executing on or after the start date, via meeting the entry criteria 226 in one embodiment, the collection procedure is said to be in the Active state in which at least the schedule of events 222 is being implemented by the processor 102. The Completed state functions in a similar manner as to the completion flag 257 when the collection procedure 70 has ended as mentioned above previously.

Parse Script

The parse script is the script that causes the processor 102 to parse the contextualized data, such as e.g., contextualized data 395 (FIG. 11), once the collection procedure 70 data collection is complete. The parse script causes the processor 102 to try to resolve any exceptions (e.g., in real time, i.e., as the procedure 70 is being executed) that may have arisen at the time of execution of the collection procedure 70, e.g., for only critical data events 237 in the collection procedure 70 (e.g., a mandatory data collection for a biomarker value) in one embodiment. If at the end of the execution of the parse script exceptions remain for at least the mandatory data required for the collection procedure 70, then the parse script will cause the processor 102 to signify that appropriate data has not been collected. Consequently, the collection procedure 70 is marked by the processor 102 as incomplete via the completion flag 257 not being provided by the processor 102 in the data file 145. If there are no exceptions at the end of a parse script, e.g., at least for the critical events in one embodiment, and/or for all events in still another embodiment, the collection procedure 70 is marked complete via the processor 102 providing the completion flag 257 in data file 145, which contains the collected and contextualized data. The role of the parse script will be explained hereafter subsequently in a still another embodiment illustrating an execution stage.

Analysis Script

The analysis script causes the processor 102 to analyze the completed collection procedures 70 that have their own associated datasets, e.g. data file 145. The analysis performed by processor 102 according to the analysis script can be simple (mean glucose value, glucose variability, etc.) or it can be more complex (insulin sensitivity, noise assessment, etc.). In one embodiment, the collection device 24 can perform the actual analysis itself, or the analysis can be carried out on a computer, such as computer 18, 25. In one embodiment, the results from the analysis script can then be displayed either on the display 108 of collection device 24 by the processor 102 or on the display of a peripheral device. Reference to the scripts and program instructions of the software 34 are discussed hereafter with reference made to FIGS. 13 and 14 as well as to FIGS. 2 and 5B.

Collection Procedure Execution

FIGS. 13 and 14 depict a collection procedure execution method 400 performed by the processor according to the program instructions of the software 34 using the above mentioned scripts during a collection procedure 70. The dash-dot lines indicate the boundary between the different domains of the different scripts and are the boundaries across which exchange in control takes place. It is to be appreciated that the hereafter disclosed embodiments of the present invention can be implemented on a blood glucose measuring device (such as a meter) that has the capability to accept one or more structured collection procedures 70 and the associated meter-executable scripts discussed above.

With reference first to FIG. 13, once a collection procedure 70 is initiated on the collection device 24 by the processor 102 using the protocol script 401 in step 402, such as in any of the above manners discussed previously above in earlier sections, after meeting entry criteria 226 (if provided in the collection procedure 70), a data event instance, e.g., an event 237, occurs according to the schedule of events 222 in step 404. For the event 237, in this example, the processor 102 prompts via a request 240 for the patient 12 to take a reading around a lunch event as mandated by the collection procedure 70. For example, the prompting of the request 240 may be an alarm provided by the processor 102 via indicator 148 that goes off, whereby the patient 12 is asked also on the display 108 by the processor 102 to take a reading. In one embodiment, the snooze feature as well as the skip reading feature are provided by the software 34, where the patient 12 can use the user interface 146 to enable a delay or to skip the data collection. For example, selecting the delay feature as discussed previously above in earlier sections can cause the processor 102 to prompt the patient 12 again for the event 237 a predefine amount of time after enabling the delay to the data collection. For example, such a feature could be used in case the patient 12 cannot take the reading at the time of the prompting in one embodiment, e.g., at the beginning of the window of time in which to provide the measurement/reading. Likewise, the skip feature would be selected if the patient believes he/she cannot perform the measurement/reading within the window of time. An example of a window of time or a specific time-window around an event is shown by FIG. 10B (“allowable window”).

The processor 102 according to the protocol script 401 then uses adherence criteria 224 in step 406 to determine whether the data collection for the event 237 was successful by meeting the conditions of the adherence criteria 224 in one embodiment. For example, a successful data collection will occur if the patient 12 successfully collects the data within the specified time-window. In another embodiment, the same processing may be applied to one or more sampling group 262. Successfully collected data for such events in the schedule of events 222 and/or sampling grouping 262 is then contextualized by processor 102 according to the protocol script 401 in step 410, for example, by associating in the data file 145 with the collected data, e.g., data 256, the current time e.g., the date-time stamp 169 (FIG. 4), the event 239 and/or request 240, and available contextual information 156, e.g., about the patient's therapy as well as the unique identifier 167, if needed, as discussed also previously above in earlier sections.

If, in the above example, the patient 12 fails to collect data within the specified time-window, then in step 412 the processor 102 according to the protocol script 401 scans the contextualized data resident on the collection device 24 to determine if a similar data-point is available that meets the requirements of the missed data-point. This data-point will be selected by the processor 102 according to the protocol script 401 in step 414 only if it fulfils all requirements of the data-point intended to be collected.

As an example, if the collection procedure 70 requires a paired measurement, i.e., pre- and post-meal measurements, then it is important for both of these measurements to be made around the same event. In this case, substitution of any one value from a prior value is not permissible; should such occur, an exception is marked for the event under consideration. In this scenario, the pertinent element in the data-structure is incomplete at that location wherein the processor 102 in step 416 will declare an exception, such as providing a <null> value to the unique identifier 167 in the specific data record 152 for the event 237 which caused the exception. Should no such constraint exist, then a data-point from the data resident on the collection device 24 can be selected by the processor 102 in step 414 and added to the contextualize collected data in step 410. This substitute data-point will have the same contextual information, event context, and collected within a specified time-window of the original collection period if such is a requirement. In step 418, according to the protocol script 401, the processor 102 will check to see data collection is completed for all of the events 237 in the schedule of events 222 of the collection procedure. The processor 102 also checks whether exit criteria 228 is met, if such is provided by the collection procedure 70. If not, then the processor 102 proceeds with the next event in the schedule of events 222 by returning to step 404 wherein the data collection then proceeds for the remainder of the collection procedure 70 in a similar fashion. It is to be appreciated that frequent messages as part of the guidance 230 of the collection procedure 70 can be displayed by the processor 102 to the patient 12 on the display 108 to guide the patient throughout the entire data collection. It is to be appreciated that as part of the protocol script that whenever any specified exit criteria is met, the processor 102 can end the collection procedure 70 in one embodiment or present as an option on the display 108 for the patient to select ending the procedure 70 in another embodiment. Once the data collection is completed in step 418, the protocol script 401 then hands over control of the processor 102 to the parse script 403 in step 420.

With reference to FIG. 14, which highlights the role played by the parse script 403, when control is passed upon completion of the collection procedure 70, the parse script 403 checks the contextualized data 170 in the data file 145 for incompleteness. To accomplish this, the processor 102 reads the contextualized data 170 from memory 110 in step 422 and looks for any exceptions (e.g., <null> value for any unique identifier 167) provided in the data file 145 as an exception check in step 424 according to the parse script 403. When possible, the processor 102 tries to address any these exceptions using data available on the collection device 24 should it be possible in step 426. As an example, applicable data either may be available from non-collection procedure events or from data collected as part of another collection procedure 70. If the exception cannot be addressed from existing data, then in step 428 the collection procedure 70 is marked incomplete. At this point the completion flag 257 for the collection procedure 70 is set as incomplete (e.g., not set, <null>, a pre-define value, etc.). Otherwise, if there are no exceptions and/or all exceptions have been addressed in step 426, then the processor 102 sets the completion flag 257 as completed and then can display the result of the collection procedure 70 in step 430. The processor 102 in accordance with the parse script 403 then collects all of the data associated with the collection procedure 70 (i.e., data file 145) and hands control over to the analysis script 405 in step 432.

In step 434, the analysis script will cause the processor 102 to perform all the necessary analysis, such as analysis 258 (FIG. 6B) that is detailed in the collection procedures 70, on the data collected in step 432, if the completion flag 257 is marked complete in the data file 145. In one embodiment, simple analysis routines calculations can be performed on the collection device 24, whereas more complex collection procedures 70, the analysis can be done on a computer, such as computer 18 or 25.

When a collection device 24 containing one or more collection procedures 70 is connected to a device reader 22, such as the Smart-Pix device, that is connected to computer 18 or the clinician computer 25, the software 32 cause the associate processor to display automatically a list of the completed collection procedures 70 and their associated data files 145.

In one embodiment, the software 34 can interact with the device reader 22, such as provided as a SmartPix device, for visualization of results, or with any other device including computer 18, 25, etc., that can display the results of the analysis of the data from the collection procedure 70. At this point, if on the clinician computer 25, the clinician 14 can decide to view the results of completed and analyzed collection procedures 70 or carry out analysis of completed collection procedures 70. The clinician 14 can also review any collection procedure 70 that did not complete and try to evaluate the exceptions that exist in the collection procedure 70. This interaction gives the clinician 14 an opportunity to give the patient feedback on his data and/or evaluate reasons for the failure to complete existing collection procedure(s) 70.

Use Case Example

Referring to FIG. 15, a use case example is provided which highlights a sequence of actions carried out by the clinician 14 as well as the patient 12. This sequence encompasses an overview of the clinician 14-patient 12 interaction from the formulation of the medical question to the completion of the collection procedure 70. The dash-dot line indicates the boundary between the clinician 14 and patient 12 domains and it is the boundary across which information exchange takes place. The discussion on the completed collection procedure 70 also serves to encourage the patient and provides the clinician 14 with an opportunity to provide feedback on patient performance and progress.

In step 440, patient visits the clinician 14 and in step 442, the clinician identifies a problem, which results in the selection of medical use case (medical question) in step 444. After selecting the medical question, such as on computer 25, the clinician uses the computer to select and define/customize the structured collection procedure 70 in step 446 using method 200 and/or 300 (FIGS. 5A and 7A). After prescribing the structured collection procedure 70, the computer 25 provides the structured collection procedure 70 to the collection device 24, which is received in step 448. The patient 12 starts the data collection according to the structured collection procedure 70 using the collection device 24 after satisfying the entry criteria 226 provided in the procedure 70 in step 450. During the data collection in step 452, events 237 are automatically scheduled by the collection device 24 in accordance with the scheduled of events 222 contained in the structured collection procedure 70. Adherence criteria 224 is applied to at least to all biomarker measurements, which are evaluated and recorded for meeting the adherence criteria automatically by the collection device 24. In step 454, the structured collection procedure 70 is completed once the exit criteria 228 is met. Next in step 456, any available collection device based analysis 258 may be performed by the patient 12 if desire. Next in step 458, a report may also be generated, such as the data report mentioned in step 434 (FIG. 14). In step 460, the data (e.g., the complete data file 145) either from the collection device 24 or from the patient computer 18 is preferably sent to the clinician computer 25. The collected data is received in step 460, is then analyzed in step 462. Next, in step 464 a report can be generated, which may be used to facilitated a discussion of any additional results in step 466 with the patient 12. Next, documentation is printed in step 468, which can be given to the patient 12 in step 470 as well as recorded (stored) in an electronic medical record of the patient 12 in step 472. Various embodiments related to status reporting are discussed in later sections.

Generation, Modification, and Transfer of Collection Procedures

Embodiments of the present invention also enable the generation, modification, and transfer of collection procedures 70 to and from a structured testing enabled device, such as collection device 24. As the collection procedures 70 stem from and aim to address specific medical use cases or questions, the transfer of the resultant information e.g., data file 145, from one device to another is carried out in a secure manner. Additionally, a method whereby all of the collection procedure related information (e.g., data file 145) for a patient or a group of patients can be managed in a secure and efficient manner.

It is to be appreciated that the discussion provided hereafter includes aspects related to the interaction between the clinician 14 and the patient 12 as discussed previously above concerning FIG. 15. In particular, the disclosure hereafter provides details regarding the infrastructure required to manage the generation, transfer, and analysis of the collection procedures 70. Reference hereafter is also made to the system 41 of FIG. 2, as aspects pertaining to the transfer of devices and information (data, reports, etc.) to and from the devices 18, 25 and 52 are provided.

In one illustrated embodiment, the system 41 can comprise server 52 being a web-server that serves as a repository of a plurality of collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, as software 34 that resides on the clinician computer 25, and the collection device 24, such as provided as a blood glucose meter. Henceforth these components are referred to as the “server”, “software”, and the “meter” respectively. Additionally, the computer 25 where the software 34 resides is termed as the “client”.

In one embodiment, the server 52 can serve as a central repository for a number of collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and 70 d that address specific medical questions. Accordingly, one or more collection procedures 70 can be downloaded from the server 52 to the clinician computer 25. In such an embodiment, all communications between the server 52 and the client computer 25 is done in a secure and web-based format. Additionally, in another embodiment, there is no full two-way data transfer between the computer 25 and the server 52 such that patient data can never be transferred to the server 52. Furthermore, in other embodiment, a request for a collection procedure from the server 52 can be made only with a valid identifier. Such an embodiment ensures that only authorized clients are allowed to access the server 52 to download the requested collection procedure(s) 70.

In one embodiment, each collection procedure 70 downloaded from the server 52 can be used only once (e.g., if the completed flag or state is set, the procedure 70 cannot be run again until reauthorized by the clinician 14). Each successive download of the collection procedure 70 requires access from an authorized client user with a valid ID 71 (FIG. 2). The server 52 also provides the client computer 25 with updates thereby ensuring that the software is the most recent version. There also exist restrictions on the communication from the client computer 25 to the server 52. The server 52 can only access information related to the installed version of the software 34. It is not possible for the server 52 to access any data resident in the client database e.g., memory 78. Additionally, the data on the client computer 25 is access controlled so that it cannot be used and accessed without the necessary permissions.

The software 34 residing on the client computer 25 serves as the interface between the server 52 and the meter 24. The software 34 at the front end includes a user-friendly interface that provides the clinician 14 with ready information pertaining to the overall practice. This information may include details about all assigned patients, details about the patients the clinician 14 is scheduled to see on a given day, as well as the details about patients that need extra attention. The software 34 also interfaces with a database that includes relevant patient data that is arranged by an individual patient ID, such as used by and provided in the healthcare record system 27. The software interface also allows the clinician 14 to access the patient 12 details using the patient identifier. In this manner the software 34 provides the clinician 14 with information about the collection procedure(s) 70 that the patient 12 has already completed (i.e., those with a completed set for the completion flag 257), the associated results, and also the collection procedure(s) 70 that the patient 12 is currently performing. All of the data residing on the client computer 25 is secure and access-controlled. The server 52 has no means to access the data. The clinician 14 can access data from all patients in the practice. In addition, an individual patient 12 can access his data, such as from a server of the clinicians, using his patient identifier in a secure web-based format. This data is downloaded to the database on computer 25 from the meter 24 and associated to the patient 12 using the patient identifier.

At the time of data download from the meter 24, the software 34 also performs an analysis on the data to ensure that the integrity of the data is maintained and no corruption in the data has taken place at the time of transfer. The client computer 25 with the help of the software 34 can also send emails to the individual patients and these emails can contain information about an upcoming appointment, reminders on what the patient is supposed to do after an appointment and reports that are results of a completed collection procedure 70. When the clinician 14 downloads a collection procedure 70 from the server 52 for a particular patient, the collection procedure 70 is associated with the patient identifier. In this way, it is possible to account for what collection procedures 70 are currently underway for his patients.

A downloaded collection procedure 70 can also be modified by the clinician 14 using the software 34 to tailor the collection procedure 70 to individual patient needs as previously discussed above in earlier sections (FIG. 7B). At the time of modification of the collection procedure 70, the clinician 14 also has the option to alter the analysis that will be carried out on the modified collection procedure 70. Additionally, even for standard collection procedures 70 that have not been modified, the clinician 14 has the option to add additional options for analysis.

Furthermore, the clinician 14 can decide and set guidelines as to when the procedure 70 must terminate. For example, the clinician 14, can decide and set how many adherence violations are allowed, i.e., how many measurements can the patient miss, such as via using the options parameter 232 in the collection procedure 70.

Once a collection procedure 70 is introduced into the meter 24 by the clinician 14 (details discussed in the next section), the collection procedure 70 cannot be altered by the patient 12 (i.e., only by an authorized user with edit rights, which is typically only the clinician 14). Additionally, the collection procedure 70 is associated with both the clinician 14 (the prescriber) and the patient identifiers to ensure accounting of the collection procedure 70 and associated data (e.g., data file 145).

The software 34 also allows the clinician 14 to select the type of report that will be generated once the completed collection procedure 70 has been analyzed. This report is tailored for the device on which it will be viewed. The report could be for a mobile device such as a telephone, a palm device or a meter, or a computer, or a printed format. The software 34 also has the ability to connect with an electronic medical records system to add patient data and results of analysis performed on the data from a collection procedure 70 to the medical records.

The meter 24 serves as the mechanism by which prospective and contextualized data is collected by the patient 12 as recommended by the collection procedure 70. The meter 24 can be owned by the patient or it can be owned by the clinician 14 and loaned to the patient 12 for the duration of the data collection associated with the collection procedure 70. The clinician 14 can introduce the collection procedure 70 into the meter 24 by a number of mechanisms. For example, the collection procedure 70 can be downloaded from the server 52 and added to the meter 24 via a connecting cable that links the client computer 25 to the meter 24 in one embodiment. The collection procedure 70 can also be obtained in another embodiment on a chip (e.g., computer readable medium 40) that can be inserted into the meter 24. This collection procedure 70 is then loaded into firmware of the meter 24 where it can be initiated by the patient 12. The collection procedure 70 can also be introduced using an RFID tagged chip (e.g., computer readable medium) in still another embodiment.

Along with the downloaded collection procedure 70, the meter 24 also has the ability to display instructions to the patient 12 that guide the patient at the time of data collection. Additionally, as discussed above, the collection procedure 70 can introduce into the meter 24 both the patient identifiers as well as the clinician identifier. Similarly, the data collected from the meter 24 can be associated with the patient identifier and clinician identifier, such as part of setup data 163 (FIG. 4) in the data file 145. Additionally, the setup data 163 in the data file 145 can include information about the meter 24 (i.e., measurement noise, calibration data), as well as strip lot numbers and other information about the strips used for any data collection event 237. Such information may be helpful at the time of data analysis.

At the completion of the collection procedure 70 the meter 24 can be connected to the software 34. At that time data, such as data file 145, is transferred securely and stored by the processor 76 of the client computer 25 according to the software 34 running thereon. Once the analysis performed on the data from the collection procedure is completed by the software 34 on the client computer 25, the meter 25 also has the ability to store results of the analysis for patient reference. Reference is now made to FIGS. 16-18 hereafter.

Software GUI

In one embodiment, a typical workflow highlighting further features of the software 34 useable through a graphical user interface (GUI 500) provided thereby on a computer, such as computer 25 and/or server 52, are presented. In this example, the typical scenario is when the clinician 14 opens the case file for a particular patient is considered. As shown in FIG. 16, the clinician 14 can readily visualize important details about a displayed patient file 502 using the GUI 500 of the software 34 running on the client computer 25. On a top pane 502 of the GUI 500, the clinician 14 can see and use various administrative tasks 504, such as changing the displayed patient file, create an email containing information form the patient file, create a fax containing information from the patient file, save the patient file, bookmarking data in the patient file, select existing bookmarks, print information/graphs from the patient file, etc.

On a left pane 506 of the GUI 500, the clinician 14 has additional options 508 such as the option to download patient data, such as data file 145, when a meter 24 is connected to the computer 25 or 18 (wired or wirelessly). The other options 508 also can also include viewing details regarding a patient profile, logbook, and additional records, and graphs based on calculated data, etc. As indicated by FIG. 16, the summary option is selected, which shows its content in a main pane 510.

The main pane 510 indicates all of the typical steps in a workflow for therapy administration for the patient 12. These steps can include the following: Disease State 512, Therapy Selection 514, Therapy Initialization 516, Therapy Optimization 518, and Therapy Monitoring 520. Each step provided as an icon on the GUI 500 is discussed hereafter.

Disease State 512 is a determination of the disease state, e.g., the patient is a Type 1 or a Type 2 diabetic. Typically, the disease state determination is carried out when the patient 12 first visits the clinician 14 or when the clinician 14 suspects that a particular patient might be at risk. Therapy Selection 514 follows thereafter once the disease state is determined, and the clinician 14 needs to select an appropriate therapy that takes into account the patient's disease state. As Therapy selection 514 can include the processes of methods 200 and 300 shown by FIGS. 5A and 7A, respectively, no further discussion is provided. Therapy Initialization 516 is the process of therapy initialization involves establishing the initial details by means of which therapy is administered to the patient 12. This may include details about the starting dose of the therapy, time when the therapeutic is taken, and the likes. Further details about Therapy Initialization 516 are provided hereafter in reference to FIG. 17. Therapy Optimization 518 involves the determination of the best effective dose for the patient such that it will not cause side effects. An example of a method for therapy optimization is disclosed by U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/643,338 “STRUCTURED TESTING METHOD FOR DIAGNOSTIC OR THERAPY SUPPORT OF A PATIENT WITH A CHRONIC DISEASE AND DEVICES THEREOF” filed Dec. 21, 2009, and assigned to Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference. Finally, Therapy Monitoring 520 involves routinely monitoring the patient 12 to detect therapy obsolescence after the selected therapy has been optimized. Thus, the GUI 500 provides the clinician 14 with all of the useful information in a user-friendly format.

FIG. 17 represents the scenario when the clinician 14 has already determined the disease state and selected a therapy, via Disease State 512 and Therapy Selection 514, and is at the step for Therapy Initialization 516. As shown, the software 34 shades in the GUI 500 the steps already completed wherein only the step currently underway, e.g., Therapy Initialization 516, is highlighted. In addition, in one embodiment, the software 34 does not permit the clinician 14 to progress to the next step without accomplishing all the required actions in the current step (in other words, all previous steps have been accomplished). However, the software 34 provides the clinician 14 with the option to go back and modify prior steps via selecting the particular icon for the step in the GUI 500.

In this example, the patient 12 is diabetic, and currently for Therapy Initialization 516 the clinician 14 needs to initialize a long acting insulin therapy for a Type 1 diabetic patient. As shown, the clinician 14 is presented on the GUI 500 for this step with all available initializing options 522 for initializing the therapy. For example and as shown, the clinician 14 can select a type of drug 524, such as show as a long acting basal insulin, and select procedure selection icons 526 associated with the drug 524 and each associated with a collection procedure 70 that is available for addressing a therapy question(s) regarding a particular drug (e.g., Lantus, Levemir) listed associated (and available) with the type of drug 524. The software 34 through the GUI 500 also permits the clinician 14 to decide if additional therapy related parameters 528, such as insulin sensitivity, insulin to carbohydrate ratio, and the like, should be undertaken if such is needed. Additionally, further details for the therapy initialization can be viewed via selecting an icon for general information 530.

When the clinician selects one of the procedure selection icons 526, the software 34 provides a snapshot 532 of the conditions set in the associated collection procedure 70, such as illustrated by FIG. 18. Typical initial conditions provided in the snapshot 532 can include: frequency of dosage (dosing adjustment), (default) starting dose, target levels, schedule of events (e.g., Measure fasting blood glucose for 3 days), recommendations for computation (e.g., modify drug dose base on the 3-day median, measure remaining for days to assess the effect), and the like. If more details regarding the selected collection procedure 70 is desire, such as related medical literature, case studies that may have formed the basis for the structured collection procedure, and the like, can be viewed via More Detail icon 534. The clinician 14 has also the choice to either accept the collection procedure 70 as provided, via the Accept icon 536 or suggest modifications to the collection procedure 70 via the Modify protocol 538. As selecting the Modify protocol 538 can open on the GUI 500, for example, a screen representation of all the parameters in the procedure 70 for modification, such as depicted by FIG. 7B, and as such was previously discussed above in earlier sections no further discussion is provided. Once modifications are made to the collection procedure 70, the clinician 14 can review and accept the changes. Upon accepting the collection procedure 70, via selecting the Accept icon 536 on the GUI 500, the software 34 cause the processor e.g., processor 76, to send the completed collection procedure 70 to the meter 24 as discussed previously above in earlier sections. Certain advantages of the above mentioned embodiments of the present invention are noted hereafter.

Although not limited thereto, the embodiments of the present method offer the following noted advantages. Certain embodiments enable contextualization of collected data by taking into account factors such as meals and existing medications. All of the data analysis can be carried out on prospective data, i.e., contextualized data collection is carried out keeping in mind the medical question that needs to be addressed. The collection procedures 70 are each geared towards collecting bG data to address a specific medical issue, e.g., control of postprandial glycemic excursions, regulating the fasting blood glucose value, characterizing the patient insulin sensitivity, monitoring the patient's therapeutic response, and the like. Using such collection procedures, makes the task of collecting BG values goal oriented as the patient knows the reason why he or she is carrying out such tests. It is believed that awareness of the reason for conducting tests would lead to an increase in adherence.

Also, certain embodiments provides the infrastructure necessary to manage multiple simultaneously running collection procedures 70 on different collection device 24 by different patients 12, while ensuring secure web-based communication for receiving and transmitting the collection procedures 70 and the results obtained from the analysis of these collection procedures 70. For example, certain embodiments help the clinician 14 by: making it easier for the clinician 14 to impact all of the stages of a patient's therapy ranging from disease state determination to regular monitoring under a working regular therapy; making it possible for the clinician 14 to manage the various stages of collection procedure 70 execution for a group of patients in a secure, and web-based format; offering the clinician 14 flexibility by providing the option to select collection procedures 70 from a pre-determined list or modify a collection procedure 70 based on patient needs; making the interaction between the clinician 14 and the patient 12 more effective as the communication is entirely data-centric and guided by, for example, a medical question at hand.

Status Reporting

Status reporting can be provided in many forms. For example, in certain structured collection procedure embodiments, information indicating at what stage of protocol execution that a patient is in can be provided. For example, as depicted by FIG. 19A, a display 106 of device 24 can provide information e.g., such as in the form of a displayed electronic message 590, regarding that event 237 n (where n is a, b, c, . . . )(FIG. 6B) of the collection procedure 70 has been successfully completed and that the next event is event 237 n+1. Additionally, results at the end of execution of the collection procedure 70 can be provided to the patient in still other embodiments as part of a results message 592 of the status reporting, e.g., recommendations 260 (FIG. 6B), as depicted by FIG. 19B. In still other embodiments, a number of different reports can be electronically displayed, such as via display 106 of device 24, as a report list 594, e.g., Report A, Report B, Report C, etc., from which a patient can select a desired report via the user interface 146 from the list at the conclusion of a structured collection procedure 70 as depicted by FIG. 19C. In such an embodiment, for example, one report can be a tabular or a graphical representation of the outcome of the collection procedure, e.g., recommendation 260, another report can be a tabular or graphical representation of how well the collection procedure was followed, and still another report can be a tabular or graphical representation of performance on different aspects of the collection procedure to serve as a guide for selecting future collection procedures or identifying areas where additional user support may be needed. Still other types of report may include: providing the number of adherence elements; providing the average glucose readings in fasting and in post-prandial periods; and providing the differences in bG in week and weekend periods. In still other embodiments, the functions of saving and printing 596, 598 a selected report can also be provided on the display 106 by the device 24 as well as transmitted to a designated health care provider (e.g. clinician 14) via a send function 599 as also depicted in FIG. 19C. In such an embodiment, the health care provider can be designated in memory 110 of the device 24 such as by an email address and/or IP address, such as of a server, computer, and/or computing device of the health care provider, to which the selected report is sent, e.g. over network 50. In still other embodiments, the patient 12 could be exposed to “partial” reporting of on-going results in anticipation of the reporting they would receive upon completion of the structured collection procedure. Such a feature can also be implemented via the report list 594. In further embodiments, such status reporting can be displayed on a number of different devices, such as the device reader 22, or with any other device including computer 18, 25, etc., that can display such status reporting of the collection procedure 70.

In still other structured collection procedure embodiments, at each aspect of running the collection procedure 70, right from initialization to the end of the execution, some sort of status reporting can be provided in which to aid the patient in executing and completing the structured collection procedure. The types of status reports which can be provided at each of the various aspects of execution of the structured collection procedure 70 is discuss hereafter with reference made to FIG. 20, which depicts a method for performing a structured collection procedure according to another embodiment of the present invention. It is to be appreciated that process steps shown in FIG. 20 having like numbering of process steps discussed in proceeding sections have like function, and thus no further discussion is provided for brevity.

Start of the Structured Collection Procedure.

In one embodiment, starting information 600 can be provided before the patient 12 initiates the structured collection procedure 70, or in another embodiment as part of the procedure start in process step 316. The starting information 600 in one embodiment conveys to the patient 12 the reason(s) why the structured collection procedure should be carried out and also what results can be expected upon successful completion of the collection procedure 70. In other embodiments, the starting information 600 can include information regarding the entry criteria 226 that needs to be met in order to start the collection procedure 70 in process step 318. Additionally, general suggestions regarding the requirements for the adherence criteria 224, e.g., explaining what constitutes a measurement that cannot be used, e.g., not fasting, the requisite time before a fasting reading, etc., as well as encouragement, e.g., “The better the adherence, the better the results as well as the quicker the overall task will be completed,” can be provided in still other embodiments of the starting information 600. In still other embodiments, specific information for the clinician 14 can also be included in the starting information 600, e.g., the intended user groups for the collection procedure 70, the burden of the collection procedure 70, and the likes. It is to be appreciated that such starting information 600 can be given as a printed report, can be made available in a secure fashion over the web so that it can be viewed on a computer, such as computer 18, 25 (FIG. 1), and/or displayed on the display 106 of the device 24, or on a display of any other appropriate handheld device. In still other embodiments, the starting information 600 is included as part of the guidance 230 (FIG. 21) provided by the structured collection procedure 70 at startup and/or can be pre-defined in the collection procedure 70 and customized by the clinician 14 as desired.

In still other embodiments, the starting information 600 can provide the anticipated total amount of time required to complete the collection procedure and the number of expected measurements. An example of such information provided by the starting information 600 for the total time and measurements may be a message which states “The anticipated amount time is about 4 weeks to complete the collection procedure which requires 30 fasting pre-breakfast measurements.” It is to be appreciated that starting information 600 can be delivered in a number of different ways, in addition to the above mentioned means. For example, a calendar either printed, electronically provided on computer 18, via the web, and/or on device 24 as depicted by FIG. 19D (i.e., electronic calendar 602) can be provided which contains the days and times at which a measurement is to be made for performing the associated collection procedure 70.

During the Collection Procedure Execution

While the structured collection procedure 70 is being executed, for example, on the device 24, there are a number of indicators that can be provided to the patient 12 as status updates. These indicators help the patient 12 to know how he/she is performing in the execution of the collection procedure 70 and are also useful in providing guidance under special or adverse conditions that the patient 12 might encounter. Such status indicators include, but not limited thereto, the following examples.

Initially, and as stated above in a previous section, the structured collection procedure 70 may end if in step 318, the entry criteria 226 is also not met. If the entry criteria 226 is not met in step 226, then in this alternative embodiment a message 601 may be provided which notifies the patient 12 of such a fact and which requests in step 607 whether to re-start the procedure by providing the starting information 600 again. Additionally, during the collection procedure execution, the display 106 of the device 24 can provide a status indicator 604 (FIG. 19E) which indicates how far along the patient 12 is and how far along he/she has to go in completing the collection procedure 70 that is running on the device. In one embodiment, such a status indicator 604 can be provided as a needle 603 in a gas gauge 604A as depicted by FIG. 19E, where empty represents the start of the collection procedure 70 and full represents the end of the collection procedure 70. In another embodiment, the status indicator 604 is provided as a progress bar 604B as depicted by FIG. 19F, where a bar 605 progresses from 0% completed on one side of the indicator towards 100% completed on the other side of the indicator. In one embodiment, the value indicated by the either the needle 603 of the gas gage 604A or the bar 605 of the progress bar 604B, can be based on the number of successfully collected measurements (i.e., collected according to a scheduled event 237 and which met the adherence criteria 224 in step 322) divided by the total number of such successfully collected measurements needed (i.e., to satisfied the exit criteria 228) and displayed as either a fraction (FIG. 19E) or as a percentage (FIG. 19F). In particular, the processor 102 can show such progress of the structured collection procedure 70 by counting the number of unique identifiers associated with the collected patient stored in memory 110, (i.e., the data file 145) and counting the number of events 237 in the schedule of events 222 which have assigned adherence criteria 224 multiplied by any days requirement provided by the exit criteria 228 (e.g., 3 days for the collection procedure depicted by FIG. 21). Other examples of what values on which to base/measure such progress can include, and not limited thereto, on attaining a specified bG value as well as on additional criteria when a value crosses a threshold value. In other embodiments, progress can be measured by: indicating the percent (%) attainment of a goal, such as a titration of a medication till a diagnostic measurement range is attained; by showing a comparison to a population of many such patient titrations; and via a characteristic “Rate of Change of Medication” to “Remaining Duration” function to predict the remaining duration for the current user. It is to be appreciated that showing such progress which describes how long it would take to complete the collection procedure 70 can differ based on whether the collection procedure is a fixed schedule assessment or a variable schedule assessment/optimization, which may take an unknown amount of time to complete. For example, collection procedures providing fixed schedule assessments, such progress can be measured either by the amount of time that remains, or by the amount of events that remain. For example, such progress could be shown by a simple countdown e.g., as a graphically displayed message “You have x days, and y measurements until completion,” provided on display 106 or as part of the information displayed in the electronic calendar 602 (FIG. 19D). For collection procedures providing variable schedule assessments/optimizations, for example, the measure for completion can begin through a default number based on clinical data, either provided by the clinician 14, the clinician computer 25, and/or a server 52, such as of manufacturer 64. In such an embodiment, the trajectory of the patient 12 towards completion of the collection procedure 70 would initially be assumed to be coincident with a predicted trajectory that can be based on a median or a mean value of individuals (either similar individuals, or all individuals from a population source) who have completed the same procedure. As data from the patient is collected by the device 24, the patient's trajectory can be overlaid on the predicted trajectory (e.g., provided as part of the setup data 163 for the collection procedure 70) by the processor 102. As long as the patient's trajectory is overlaying within a predetermined variance based model, the predicted duration remains the same. However, if the actual trajectory varies by more than a predetermined value, e.g., a cubic spline, or the likes (e.g., also provided as part of the setup data 163 for the collection procedure 70), can be used to extrapolate the newly estimated end point, and thereby the microprocessor of the device 24 can dynamically adjust the projected completion of the collection procedure by the patient 12, and displayed accordingly. It is to be appreciated that for each type of collection procedure, there may be different predicted trajectories. In still other embodiments, motivational encouragement messages 606 may also be provided with each status indicator 604 such as, for example, a suggested adherence change which may increase the rate of progress in completing the running collection procedure 70. For example, if the processor 102 notes in the data that the patient 12 has stalled on one phase of an optimization based collection procedure 70 because the patient have not been in a needed fasting state at a certain measurement time (via, e.g., either the entry criteria 226 in step 318 or the adherence criteria 224 in step 322 being not met), the device 24 can encourage them to complete this important step and provide guidance to do so, e.g., providing a message that asks the patient to starting in 60 minutes to only have water till the time of the fasting measurement. This way an alert is given for the last chance to eat and the alert is given enough in advance that the user can act on it.

In still other embodiments, the patient 12 can be given feedback on the extent of his or her adherence to the collection procedure 70. As shown by FIG. 20, in this alternative embodiment, if after process step 322 the adherence criteria 224 is not met, then in process step 610 the device 24 checks to see if a violation occurred (i.e., failure by the patient to execute an particular event 237). An example of a violation for a particular event 237 may be, for example, failing to take a required measurement within a required testing window, failing to eat a particular meal type and/or size, not fasting, not entering requested data, not performing a requested action, and the likes. For each event 237, a check for a violation can be programmed into the collection procedure 70 (e.g., pre-defined and customizable by the clinician), such as by indicating either Yes or No in each violation parameter 609 of the collection procedure 70 as depicted by FIG. 21.

In this illustrated embodiment, selecting a yes “Y” in the violation parameter 609 indicates to the processor 102 that failing the condition(s) of the associated adherence criteria 224 will cause a violation during the process step 610. If no such pre-defined violation occurred, i.e., the violation parameter 609 is set to no “N”, then the process continues with evaluating the exit criteria 228 in process step 326 (FIG. 20) as disclosed above in reference to FIG. 8A in a previous section. If, however, the violation parameter 609 is set to yes “Y”, then in step 610 the processor will send automatically a violation message 640 to indicate that an adherence violation has occurred. In one embodiment, the device 24 will send automatically, via communication interface 124, the violation message 640 to the clinician. Such a violation message 640 can be simply a notice letting the clinician know that the patient had a violation, and/or in another embodiment a request to contact the patient due to the adherence violation. In another embodiment, the violation message 640 may be provided by the processor 102 on the display to notify the patient 12 that a violation has occurred. In another embodiment, the violation message 640 can be a prediction as to what is likely to happen if the patient 12 continues not to met the adherence criteria, such as e.g., “You are gaining weight”; “Your therapy will not be efficient”, and the like. It is to be appreciated further that when a violation occurs, the processor 102 can also record the occurrence of the violation in an embodiment of the data file 145 in a violation field 611 for the associated event 237 as depicted by FIG. 4.

As also depicted by FIG. 4, type codes 613 may be provided in the violation field 611 by the processor 102 to indicate what caused the violation (e.g., “A” measurement taken before window, “B” measurement taken after window, “C” measurement skipped, “D” an incorrect amount of a requested medication is taken, “E” a requested medication is not taken, “F” medication taken at incorrect time (e.g., incorrect pre- or post-prandial time), etc.) to provide context to the violation. For example, event 237 d, which did not received a unique identifier 167 due to failing the adherence 224, was a measurement which could cause a violation (i.e., violation parameter 609 set to yes “Y” in the collection procedure 70 for the associated event 237), and thus caused a violation from being skipped. As such the processor 102 recorded a “C” type code 613 in the violation field 611. Such context is information that the clinician can use in assessing how the collection procedure 70 may be adjusted to better suit the patient 12 in the future.

With reference made back to FIG. 20, next in one embodiment, in step 612, a violation counter is incremented in process step 612, and in process step 614, the number of violations (i.e., violation counter) is checked to see if it exceeds a maximum number of violations permitted (i.e., violation number (VN)) before automatic termination of the collection procedure 70 occurs for excess adherence violations. The violation number (VN(s)) 615 can be preset in the collection procedure 70 as depicted by FIG. 21 and adjusted by the clinician as desired. In still other embodiments, a number of violation numbers 615 could also be provided in the collection procedure 70 wherein each violation number would be set for each of the Type Codes 613, such that if the violation counter for each Type Code 613 exceeded the associated violation number, the collection procedure 70 would terminate due to that specific type violation. In still other embodiments, the violation number 615 could represent the number of violations in a pre-defined period of time instead of an absolute number since the start of the collection procedure 70. For example, the pre-defined period time could be designed and adjusted by the clinician 14 in the collection procedure by a time parameter (t) 619. For example, in one embodiment the processor 102 in step 612 would also check to see whether the violation counter exceeded the violation number 615 within the associated pre-defined period (t) 619, or in another embodiment any of the violation numbers associated with each Type Code 613 within their associated pre-defined period (t) 619. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 20, if the violation number (VN) 615 is exceeded in process step 614, i.e. the violation counter “Violations” is greater than the violation number (VN), then a failed message 617 is provided in process step 616 and the procedure ends in process step 328 as discussed previously above in an earlier section. The failed message 617 can be pre-defined in the collection procedure 70 as depicted by the FIG. 21 and customized by the clinician 14 as desired. The failed message 617 can be provided on the display 106 of the device 24 and/or to the clinician 14 via communication interface 124.

In one embodiment, the patient 12 can be told how many further adherence violations he/she can have before he/she might be forced to quit the structured collection procedure 70, such as part of the messages 606 provided in the calendar embodiment (FIG. 19D). For example, the message may be “You have {Violation Counter} of { VN} permitted violations,” or “You have {VN-Violation Counter} permitted violation remaining,” where { } indicates the current parameter value. In still other embodiments, similar status indicators such as the gas gage 604A and the bar indicator 604B can graphically convey such information. For example, FIG. 19G shows a gas gage 604C which indicates the number of adherence violations committed (e.g., the violation counter=2) and the maximum permitted (i.e., Violation Number (VN)=3) before automatic termination of the collection procedure 70 for excess adherence violations (i.e., the violation counter “Violations” is greater than the violation number (VN) in process step 614). In still other embodiments, such information can be provided graphically by icons, and/or images which change to show a change in the violations remaining e.g., such as in video games showing the number of lives remaining.

In other embodiments, after each violation which does not result in termination (e.g., Violation Count<VN in process step 614) or after a set number of such non-terminating violations (e.g., Violation Count=s, where s<VN), the device 24 can check to see if the user should be queried, for example, in process step 618. In still other embodiments, process steps 612, 614, and 616 can be made optional and thus not provided, and in still other embodiments process steps 610, 612, 614, and 616 can be made optional and thus not provided, wherein in such embodiment, after not meeting the adherence criteria 224 in process step 322, the device 24 then checks to see if the user should be queried in process step 618. If the result of process step 618 is no in the above various embodiments, such as in the case where no query message(s) 621 (FIG. 21) is defined in the structured collection procedure 70 or where the set number (s) 623 of such non-terminating violations has not be reached (e.g., Violation Count < > s), then the process proceeds to process step 326. If the result of the process step 618 is yes, then in process step 620 the query message 621 is provided to the patient 12 on display 106 of the device 24. The query message 621 and set-number (s) 623 can be pre-defined in the collection procedure 70 as depicted by the FIG. 21 and customized by the clinician 14 as desired.

For example, in one embodiment, the query message 621 may be a question asking the user if he/she understands the structured collection procedure 70, which is asked after the second violation, i.e., s=2. In other embodiments, other values for the set-number 623 may be used such that the query message 621 is asked after a particular number of violations have occurred, can be set to an “all” value in which after each violation the query message is asked, or to a <null> value in which no query message 621 will be asked such that the processor 102 proceeds with process step 326.

In the illustrated embodiment depicted by FIG. 20, the user may answer the query message 621 via selecting either a “yes” or “no”, e.g., via the user interface 146 (FIG. 3). If “yes”, then the collection procedure 70 would continue, such as at process step 326 (FIG. 20). If “no”, then the device 24 provides helping information 625 in process step 622. Such helping information 625 may include re-displaying the starting information 600 pertaining to purpose of the collection procedure 70 and the requirements on how the collection procedure needs to be conducted. If after such information is displayed to the user e.g., on display 106, the device 24 in other embodiments can query the user further in process step 624 via presenting another query message 621′. The query message 621′ can be, e.g., a request to see if the patient may need feedback from the clinician 14 to better understand why the violation occurred, to which the patient may answer yes or no via the user interface 146. If “no”, then the collection procedure 70 would continue, such as at step 326, and if “yes”, the device 24 could then send a message 627 in process step 626, e.g. via communication interface 124, to the clinician 14 to contact the patient due to an adherence violation. The query message 621′, the helping information 625, and the clinician message 627 likewise can be pre-defined in the collection procedure 70 as depicted by the FIG. 21, and customized by the clinician 14 as desired.

In still other embodiments, in process step 618, the processor 102 presents on the display 108 questions and answers, e.g., questions presented with yes or no answers, in which to determine why the adherence criteria was not met. If in process step 618, use of the questions and answers by the patient 12 (i.e., via entering answers using the user interface 146) fails to provide a determination of why the adherence criteria was not met, then the processor 102 displays a message on the display to contact the clinician 14.

It is to be appreciated that the above mentioned type of querying in one embodiment and/or presentation of questions and answers in another embodiment may help to get the patient 12 back on track with the collection procedure 70 due to minor misunderstandings. In still another embodiments, the adherence violation in process step 628 results in a triage message 629 being sent automatically (e.g., from device 24 to clinician computer 25 via network 50) to the clinician 14 to help the clinician 14 identify which patients 12 are at risk of not completing the structured collection procedure 70. Such messaging may prompt the clinician 14 to contact the patient 12 to provide information and further motivation.

In still other embodiments, the collection procedure 70 can provide possible ways to reduce the number of accumulated adherence violations through closer adherence. For example, the clinician 14 may at some point during the collection procedure 70 reset the violation counter and/or change the violation number 615. In still other embodiments, the device 24 can provide a way the patient 12 earns adherence credits based on a successfully completing a period of adherence that would cancel accumulated violations, and/or to earn a reduction in the pending violations by opting into a form of the procedure that provides more guidance on the aspects of the procedure that are the source of the violations. In still another embodiment, the device 24 can permit a patient who is having problems with testing at the correct time, to opt into a version of the procedure 70 that provides more prompting with the upcoming test, such as a reminder at the time of the test and another shortly before the end of the grace period for that test if it has not been performed. In still other embodiments, the number of accumulated adherence violations can be reduced by providing reminders at mealtime of taking post-prandial measurement, by indicating at measurement time, the time/details about next measurement, as well as by providing encouragement during protocol execution.

In still other embodiments, when an adherence violation occurs in a particular portion of the collection procedure 70, the device 24 can recommend that the user seeks help, such as to contact the clinician 14 to gain possible insight or motivation, and/or can provide particular information on where to seek such help. For example, the clinician could designed by the options parameter 232 for which particular events 237 such information is to be provided if a violation occurs. For such an embodiment, the processor 102 in process step 630 then checks to see whether such a designation has been made in the collection procedure 70 via help flag “*” being provided in the options parameter 232 for the event 237, e.g., for the “N1 hours after breakfast” event as depicted by FIG. 21, which in this case caused the violation. If such a help flag “*” is provided, then a help message 631 is in process step 632. For example, the information provided in the help message 631 can be included in the helping information 625, and can include, but not limited thereto, web addresses of online help content, and names and numbers of social support networks. The patient 12 in still other embodiments such information may also include suggestions on how to deal with the situation(s) where an adherence violation had occurred. For example, suggestions on what to do when a value of a physiological measurement collected in response to a collection event is out of the expected range can be provided. Such suggestions can be provided as a listing of frequently asked questions (FAQ) and answers. Still other suggestions can ask the patient 12 to make assessments as to whether the violation is a recurring pattern, or a singular data point attributed to a particular acute issues, such e.g., the patient is on vacation and therefore explainable, or chronic where nothing has changed, thereby possibly indicating that something physiological or medicinally has changed, and therefore a change may be needed before continuing.

As discussed in the previous sections provided above, when the patient 12 encounters a severe hypoglycemic event, the recommendation provided by the device 24 would be to contact the clinician 14. However, in still other embodiments, additional guidance can be provided to ensure that such an adverse event does not persist, e.g., eat some carbohydrates, measure again after some time, and the likes.

In one embodiment, after the processor 102 evaluates that the exit criteria 228 is met in process step 326, in process step 638 the processor 102 can provided automatically a status report, such as a result message 640. The result message 640 in one embodiment can be provided by the processor 102 on display 108, or communicated to an external device 132 via communication interface 124, e.g., in order to provide the result message 640 to the clinician 14. In another embodiment, in process step 638 the processor 102 calculates automatically adherence based on the patient data stored in memory 110 (i.e., data records 152 stored in data file 145), and provides automatically the status report based on the calculated adherence. In such embodiments, the result message 640 provided by the processor 102 can indicate to the patient 12 and/or the clinician 14 the results of the structured collection procedure 70, a predication as to what to expect as a result of performing the structured collection procedure, and/or a prediction based on the calculated overall adherence, e.g., “Adherence excellent, therapy will be most efficient”, and the like. In still another embodiment, the processor 102 runs automatically a second structured collection procedure (e.g., one or more additional structured collection procedures 70 a, 70 b, 70 c, and/or 70 d as discussed previously above) upon meeting the exit criteria of the previous structured collection procedure, and then provides the result message 640 when the exit criteria of the second (or last) structured collection procedure is met. Again, the result message 640 can be the results of the structured collection procedure 70, a predication as to what to expect as a result of performing the one or more structured collection procedures, and/or a prediction based on the calculated overall adherence (i.e., based on the patient data resulting from completing the one or more structured collection procedures), such to, e.g., predict health status, weight status, and the likes after completing the last of the one or more additional structured collection procedures and which can be displayed on the display 108 and/or communicated to an external device 132 by the processor 102. In another embodiment, the result message 640 is automatically sent via communication interface 124 to the clinician 14 indicating that the patient 12 has completed the structured collection procedure 70. In still other embodiments, after the processor 102 evaluates that the exit criteria 228 is not met in process step 326 (FIG. 20), the processor 102 then checks to see in process step 634 if a defined deviation(s) 635 from an expected behavior is occurring in the execution of the collection procedure 70, and if so, then the device 24 can suggest that the patient 12 contacts the clinician 14 via displaying a contact message 633 in process step 636. In the one embodiment, the contact message 633 can be the same message as the failed message 617, or in another embodiment, it own defined and customizable message in the collection procedure 70. Also, one example of when a patient's behavior deviates greatly from what is expected is as follows. When the patient 12 undergoes a titration structured collection procedure 70, if the processor 102 notes that data values 256 of the measured value for blood glucose in the data file 145 (FIG. 21) do not show any lowering of fasting bG values over a pre-defined period of time in spite of increasing dosages of insulin, the contact message 633 will be sent. Other such deviation examples can be pre-defined via logical operations (e.g., Boolean and conditional logic) provided in a deviation parameter 635 (FIG. 21) provided in the options of the collection procedure 70 and which can be customized by the clinician 14 as desired.

In still other embodiments, the clinician 14 upon receiving the data file 145 (e.g., during a routine patient visit, routine data collection from the device 24 to the clinician computer 25, at completion of a collection procedure 70, etc.), uses the clinician computer 25 to review of a number of quality metrics, such as adherence, acceptance, hypoglycemia, severe hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and average glycemia before and after the completion of the collection procedure 70.

The clinician 14 can also use data provided in the data file 145 e.g., collected as part of a routine data collection request from the clinician computer to the device 24 or as part of a scheduled data transmission of the device 24, to perform a comparison of the progress of their patient relative to a patient group, such as others within their practice, or against a general population (such as a manufacturer maintained data store) on the clinician computer. In one embodiment, such comparisons can include the quality metrics mentioned above, time measures—alignment of change relative to others in a population, or cost measures. Such comparisons provide a simple indication to the clinician 14 whether the patient 12 is well aligned with others, or in need an intervention in the form of skill education, objective education, or procedure exclusion. Based on the collected data file 145, if the collection procedure 70 is still not completed, a report can be run on the clinician computer 25 which provides a prediction of the estimated completion time of the collection procedure 70 by the patient. Such an estimate can be base on a determination of how well the patient is progressing in adhering to the collection procedures based on the number of violation which have occurred. For example, for one collection procedure the patient is requested to provide seven days of fasting samples, of which the last three are utilized by an algorithm to make a recommended dosage change. If the patient fails to provide the last three (key) samples, in such an example, the device will not make a recommendation but rather extend automatically the collection procedure by the lost week. In such an example, the estimate would be in another week. In still another example, if a collection procedure requests a clinician intercession whenever a specific collection value exceeds a target value, the clinician computer 25 could run a prediction algorithm base on data updates received automatically from the device 24 as to when the patient will exceed the target value. Based on such an estimate/prediction, the clinician computer 25 can automatically identify the ‘best’ next opportunity for a clinical visit. Additionally, the clinician computer 25 can automatically present context relative questions or discussion points for the clinical visit based on the time, quality, or cost measures. For example, if, at time of the office visit, the patient data shows that a basal titration is running slower than a population of similar individuals (e.g., off a population based trajectory), and the patient has not presented a high number of violations, then the clinician computer 25 could suggest the clinician 14 discuss meal size, type, and timing with the patient. The clinician computer 25 may also suggest that the clinician 14 review what it means to fast, as well as suggest that the clinician evaluate the efficacy of the patient's sampling methodology.

Additional aspects that can be considered are: automatic adjustment of the progress indicator from the predicted outcome based on data provided; encouragement prompting incorporating either positive items as seen by the system (You are doing an excellent job acquiring your fasting data. Keep up the good work!), or negative items as seen by the system (You have been missing a number of insulin infusions, let's see if we can do better); education prompting—if the user does not understand what they are doing, we can detect this, and ask questions targeted at assessing their educational needs.

Results at the End of the Structured Collection Procedure

There are a number of different results that can be provided to the patient 12 at the conclusion of the structured collection procedure 70. Examples are: displaying of the analysis result, e.g. recommendation 260 (FIG. 6A); providing a listing of the number e.g., the violation counter and/or which adherence violations 613 occurred for what event 237 during the structured collection procedure 70; providing changes in the result e.g., recommendation 260, when compared to a previous result; providing a status on the patient's long term health condition by comparing data in the data file 145 to known guidelines; providing a comparison of the patient's long term health condition relative to a population; providing a comparison of previous executions of the structured collection procedure 70 versus the current results or results of other types of structured collection procedures; and providing a metric showing the number of messages successfully delivered divided by the total number of messages, e.g., expressed as a percentage. In still other embodiments, other reports may include: provide a cost accounting of the execution of the structured collection procedure as an absolute (i.e., a cost based/benefit analysis), as experienced by the patient 12 (minus that covered by insurance), compared to others running the same structured collection procedure within the clinician 14 population, or against the general population (such as a manufacturer maintained data store).

In still other embodiments, other reports may include: reporting the time it took to run the structured collection procedure; comparing the time it took to run the structured collection procedure 70 against others within the clinician population, or against a general population (such as a manufacture maintained data store); identifying reasons why the structured collection procedure took the time that it did (in the event that the structured collection procedure took longer than optimal) e.g., a listing of the adherence violations (number and type); providing pre-defined questions to establish a rational for the delay, to help explain the results (if non-optimal), to educate the patient 12 by triggering thought provoking educational opportunities, and/or to start a coaching-based dialog between the clinician 14 and patient 12.

It is to be appreciated that the manner in which the results are conveyed can be dependent on the analysis as well. For simpler structured collection procedures, the results can be displayed directly on the device 24. However, for analysis routines that are complex, several options exist: the data file 145 is downloaded to clinician computer 25 and the analysis is completed on clinician computer 25 wherein the results are discussed in person and stored in the electronic medical record of the patient 12; the analysis is completed using the patient computer 18 with included analysis software; or the analysis is processed and then made available via a secure web server. Portions on the data files 145 can also be made available to the developer, for purposes of analytics, e.g., to determine the percentage of completion/dropouts at various phase of the structured collection procedure 70 to help identify possible completion strategies for patients and providers as well as identifying locations for future improvements.

Although not limited thereto, the various status reporting embodiments of the present invention offer the following advantages. Various ones of the status reporting embodiments ensure that the patient 12 has an idea about his/her status during collection procedure execution. Providing this information can lead to an increased adherence and compliance to the structured collection procedure 70 (i.e., facilitating progress reporting and helping to ensure that minimum collection requirements are satisfied). Various ones of the status reporting embodiments ensure that the patient 12 knows how to address situations where his or her bG values are severely out of control, e.g., a status report can be provided on the device 24 which warns the patient 12 in the case of a severe hypoglycemic event. Other such exception handling type reports can also be provided. In still other embodiments, the tailored form of the status report also ensures that the clinician 14 readily knows relevant information about the patient's glycemic state during and at the end of the structured collection procedure 70. Various ones of the status reporting embodiments also allow a structured collection procedure 70 report comparison with previous executions of the same structured collection procedure 70.

Although not limited thereto, the various status reporting embodiments of the present invention offer the following additional benefits. Various ones of the status reporting embodiments can serve as a means to foster more focused and pertinent conversations between the clinician 14 and the patient 12 regarding the latter's disease status. Various ones of the status reporting embodiments can help to ensure that the initial experience (e.g., disease state determination) using the collection procedure 70 is a positive one, and thus increase the chances that the patient would perform the same and/or other such structured collection procedures again on the device 24.

Thus, by the above disclosure embodiments, various systems and methods managing the execution, data collection, data analysis of collection procedures running simultaneously on a meter, and status reporting are disclosed. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the teachings can be practiced with embodiments other than those disclosed. The disclosed embodiments are presented for purposes of illustration and not limitation, and the invention is only limited by the claims that follow. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A portable, hand-held collection device which addresses a medical question and improves compliancy with a structured collection procedure, said device comprising: a glucose meter configured to perform a blood glucose measurement on a test strip read by a measurement engine comprising: the measurement engine for reading the test strip; a display; a memory; a processor connected to the memory and the display; wherein the glucose meter comprises a housing containing therein the measurement engine, the display is exhibited on one face of the housing, and the housing has at one end a port for receiving the test strip; and program instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to: initiate a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met, collect patient data for the structured collection procedure by monitoring blood glucose levels and when entered in response to a request in accordance with an event provided in the schedule of events after initiation, store automatically in the memory the collected patient data, assess automatically whether the collected patient data in response to the request meets one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, wherein the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria is a different criteria from the entry criteria, wherein the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria comprises a defined range of values, and if the patient data does not fall within the range, the processor is configured to prompt for additional patient data and automatically extend the events in the schedule of events if an assessment provided by the processor is that steps leading up to taking of the patient data were not accomplished; associate automatically with the stored collected patient data a unique identifier in the memory if satisfying the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, provide automatically a status report when the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria are not met during the structured collection procedure, and end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met, wherein the exit criteria establishes requirements which need to be met for exiting or completing the structured collection procedure such that adequate contextual data is collected to answer the medical question addressed by the structured collection procedure and wherein the schedule of events of the structured collection procedure continues onto a next event by which to collect further patient data until the requirements for the exit criteria are met; wherein when executed by the processor, the program instructions further cause the processor to: check whether the patient data collected in response to the request which do not meet the one or more adherence criteria causes an adherence violation, to count the number of adherence violations, and end automatically the structured collection procedure when the number of adherence violations exceeds an acceptable number of adherence violations for a particular type of violation, wherein the type of violation is indicated by the processor, which is configured to provide type codes for what caused the violation, and the processor is configured to provide the type codes of: a measurement taken before a window, the measurement taken after the window, the measurement skipped, incorrect amount of a medication taken, the medication is not taken, and the medication is taken at an incorrect time; and wherein the processor sets, for each type code, the number of adherence violations for the automatic ending of the procedure to address the medical question and improve the compliancy with the structured collection procedure; and wherein the glucose meter comprises a microprocessor, a power source, and an indicator, the indicator connected to the processor and which operates under the control of the processor to emit audible, tactile, and/or visual alerts to the individual of daily times for the blood glucose measurement; and the glucose meter sends a message to a physician when the individual fails to complete one of the one or more adherence criteria, wherein a communication link between a computer of the physician and the blood glucose meter is established upon connection via a web server.
 2. A collection device according to claim 1 further comprising a communication interface and wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to send a message via the communication interface to a clinician if the adherence and/or acceptance criteria are not met.
 3. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein when the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria are not met during the structured collection procedure the program instructions further cause the processor to present on the display questions and answers to determine why the adherence and/or acceptance criteria were not met.
 4. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to display a message on the display to contact a clinician if the adherence criteria are met but not the acceptance criteria.
 5. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein when the one or more adherence criteria are not met during the structured collection procedure the program instructions further cause the processor to present on the display a prediction as to what is likely to happen if the patient continues not to meet the one or more adherence criteria.
 6. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the processor provides a status indicator on the display showing progress of completing the structured collection procedure.
 7. A collection device according to claim 6 wherein progress of the status indicator is based in part on the number of unique identifiers associated with the stored collected patient data.
 8. A collection device according to claim 6 wherein progress of the status indicator is based on the number of unique identifiers associated with the stored collected patient data and a total number of the requests in the schedule of events which need to meet the one or more adherence criteria in order for the one or more exit criteria to be met at some unknown time.
 9. A collection device according to claim 6 wherein progress of the status indicator is based the number of unique identifiers associated with the stored collected patient data divided by a total number of the requests in the schedule of events which need to meet the one or more adherence criteria in order for the one or more exit criteria to be met at some unknown time, and provided on the display as either a fraction or as a percentage.
 10. A collection device according to claim 6 wherein the status indicator represents one of a gas gage and a progress bar.
 11. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide a failure message on the display and end automatically the structured collection procedure when the number of adherence violations exceeds an acceptable number of adherence violations.
 12. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to check whether the number of adherence violations exceeds an acceptable number of adherence violations.
 13. A collection device according to claim 12 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide a triage message that indicates a risk of not completing the structured collection procedure if the number of adherence violations has not exceeded the acceptable number of adherence violations.
 14. A collection device according to claim 12 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display a help message if the number of adherence violations has not exceeded the acceptable number of adherence violations, and if a designation has been made in the structured collection procedure, to provide the help message for the event.
 15. A collection device according to claim 12 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display a query message designated in the structured collection procedure if the number of adherence violations has not exceeded the acceptable number of adherence violations, and if a designation has been made in the structured collection procedure, to provide the query message for the event.
 16. A collection device according to claim 15 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display helping information designated in the structured collection procedure if a response received by the processor to the query message is a request for the helping information.
 17. A collection device according to claim 16 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor further cause the processor to provide on the display a second query message designated in the structured collection procedure after providing the helping information.
 18. A collection device according to claim 17 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor further cause the processor to send a message to a clinician if a response received by the processor to the second query message is to send the message to the clinician.
 19. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor further cause the processor to check whether the collected patient data in memory is deviating from an expected behavior.
 20. A collection device according to claim 19 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display a contact message designated in the structured collection procedure if the collected patient data in memory is deviating from the expected behavior.
 21. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display starting information before the one or more entry criteria is met at some unknown time, wherein the starting information provides at least the purpose of the structured collection procedure and the conditions needed to meet the one or more entry criteria.
 22. A collection device according to claim 1 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to provide on the display a selectable report, which when selected, displays current status information of the structured collection procedure.
 23. A collection device according to claim 22 wherein the current status information comprises one or more of the following pieces of information regarding the structured collection procedure: progress of completion, outcome of the collection procedure, number of violations, type of violation, events completed, events left to complete, cost based analysis, and a comparison of previous executions of the structured collection procedure with current results or results of other types of structured collection procedures.
 24. A collection device according to claim 1, wherein the status report is provided by the processor, if for the event in which the one or more adherence criteria is not met during the structured collection procedure, a violation is designated in the collection procedure by a selectable violation parameter provided in the structured collection procedure.
 25. A collection device according to claim 1, wherein the processor ends automatically the structured collection procedure when the number of adherence violations exceeds the acceptable number of adherence violations in a predefined period of time.
 26. A portable, hand-held collection device which performs a structured collection procedure which addresses a medical question and improves compliancy with the structured collection procedure, said device comprising: a glucose meter configured to perform a blood glucose measurement on a test strip read by a measurement engine comprising: the measurement engine for reading the test strip; a display; a memory; a processor connected to the memory and the display; wherein the glucose meter comprises a housing containing therein the measurement engine, the display is exhibited on one face of the housing, and the housing has at one end a port for receiving the test strip; and program instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to: initiate a schedule of events of the structured collection procedure upon one or more entry criteria being met, collect patient data for the structured collection procedure by monitoring blood glucose levels and when entered in response to a request in accordance with an event provided in the schedule of events after initiation, store automatically in the memory the collected patient data, assess automatically whether the collected patient data in response to the request meets one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria, wherein the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria is a different criteria from the entry criteria, wherein the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria comprises a defined range of values, and if the patient data does not fall within the range, the processor is configured to prompt for additional patient data and automatically extend the events in the schedule of events if an assessment provided by the processor is that steps leading up to taking of the patient data were not accomplished; associate automatically with the stored collected patient data a unique identifier in the memory if satisfying the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria end automatically the structured collection procedure upon one or more exit criteria being met, wherein the exit criteria establishes requirements which need to be met for exiting or completing the structured collection procedure such that adequate contextual data is collected to answer the medical question addressed by the structured collection procedure and wherein the schedule of events of the structured collection procedure continues onto a next event by which to collect further patient data until the requirements for the exit criteria are met, calculate overall adherence based on the patient data stored in memory, and provide automatically a status report based on the calculated adherence, wherein the status report is one of a prediction displayed on the display and a status message sent automatically to a clinician; and wherein when executed by the processor, the program instructions further cause the processor to: check whether the patient data collected in response to the request which do not meet the one or more adherence criteria causes an adherence violation, to count the number of adherence violations, and end automatically the structured collection procedure when the number of adherence violations exceeds an acceptable number of adherence violations for a particular type of violation, wherein the type of violation is indicated by the processor, which is configured to provide type codes for what caused the violation, and the processor is configured to provide the type codes of: a measurement taken before a window, the measurement taken after the window, the measurement skipped, incorrect amount of a medication taken, the medication is not taken, and the medication is taken at an incorrect time; and wherein the processor sets, for each type code, the number of adherence violations for the automatic ending of the procedure to address the medical question and improve the compliancy with the structured collection procedure; and wherein the glucose meter comprises a microprocessor, a power source, and an indicator, the indicator connected to the processor and which operates under the control of the processor to emit audible, tactile, and/or visual alerts to the individual of daily times for the blood glucose measurement; and the glucose meter sends a message to a physician when the individual fails to complete one of the one or more adherence criteria, wherein a communication link between a computer of the physician and the blood glucose meter is established upon connection via a web server.
 27. A collection device according to claim 26 wherein the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to run automatically one or more additional structured collection procedures after the one or more exit criteria is met, and to calculate the overall adherence based on the patient data stored in memory when exit criteria of the last of the one or more additional structured collection procedures is met.
 28. A collection device according to claim 27 wherein the status report is one of a prediction displayed on the display by the processor and a status message sent automatically to a clinician.
 29. The collection device of claim 1 wherein the one or more adherence and/or acceptance criteria comprises two or more criteria comprising the defined range of values and a predetermined value, and wherein the patient data comprises an average value used to determine a percentage of adherence.
 30. The collection device of claim 1 wherein the memory is configured to store an email address or internet protocol (IP) address of the physician, and the processor is configured to automatically send messages to the physician, the messages comprising: that the patient has started the structured collection procedure via satisfying the entry criteria, that the patient has failed one of the events by not satisfying the one or more adherence criteria, and that the patient has completed the structured collection procedure when the exit criteria is satisfied; and wherein the display is configured to expose the patient to a partial reporting of on-going results in anticipation of a reporting the patient will receive via the display upon completion of the structured collection procedure.
 31. The collection device of claim 1 further comprising a subcutaneous tissue fluid sampling device such that the monitoring of the blood glucose levels is continuous. 